Sharanya Manivannan

About Me

I'm the author of a book of poems ("Witchcraft", 2008). Among my current projects are a second book of poems, a novel, and short fiction. I've had a biweekly column in an Indian newspaper for almost two years now, which I also archive on my blog.

Since "Witchcraft", my poems have recently appeared in Drunken Boat, Danse Macabre, Muse, White Whale Review, Clementine, A Cafe in Space, Poem2Day, Pratilipi and Pyrta.

Read more about me and my work at www.sharanyamanivannan.com.

Why do you write?

To number among my graces the ability to chronicle my own life is something I hope I never stop being thankful for. That this chronicling – these poems, the lightly disguised fiction, the guileless essays – finds an audience never ceases to amaze me, not because I labor under any false sense of humility, but because my work is so utterly personal. That it resonates for anyone else at all is deeply affirming.

As with many others, writing also brings freedom -- but the way I see it, not so much the freedom to express or to make my mark, but the freedom to live. Something about the nature of life itself changes when one approaches it through the fulcrum of art. The knowledge that all of life can be alchemized intensifies it. Some say there is a danger in living with the grandiose meta-narrative in mind. But to me, it is not about the meta-narrative: it is about the moment. As a writer, I am blessed as much by the ability to bear witness as I am by the experience itself.

Any favorite authors? Books?

Michael Ondaatje, Jeannette Winterson, Isabel Allende, Ai, Sandra Cisneros, Dorianne Laux, Louise Erdrich, Anais Nin, Nicole Krauss, Barbara Kingsolver.