As a part of Poetry with Prakriti monthly series for July, we were delighted to launch of the book of poems titled ‘Then There Were No Witnesses’ written by Ahilan and translated by Geetha Sukumaran.
Date | July 15th, Sunday at 4.30 p.m.
Venue | Amdavadi, 23/A, North Boag Road, T.Nagar, Chennai – 600017
Programme | Readings & conversations with Ahilan, Sharanya Manivannan and Geetha Sukumaran.
Refreshments will be provided. All are welcome!
About the Book
In recent times, Tamil poetry from Sri Lanka has taken a new turn, serving as a counter memory—a witness to torture, loss, trauma, and exile. Ahilan gives us a unique voice and style, in which he expresses the trauma of the violence in Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka with great nuance and subtlety. His background as art historian has allowed him to blend the 2,000-year-old Tamil cultural, literary, and philosophic tradition with visual, graphic imagery to create a rich and distinct body of poetry.
About Ahilan
Packiyanathan Ahilan was born in 1970 in Jaffna, Northern Sri Lanka. He received an MA in Art Criticism from the M.S University of Baroda and is a senior lecturer in Art History at the University of Jaffna. He began writing poems in the nineties and has published three collections titled Pathunkukuzi Naatkal (2001), Saramakavikal (2011) and Ammai (2017).
About Geetha Sukumaran
Geetha Sukumaran is a doctoral candidate in Humanities at York University, she is a poet and a bilingual translator. Her Tamil translation of Sylvia Plath’s poems, Tharkolaikku parakkum panithuli was published in 2013 and her poetry collection Otrai Pakadaiyil Enchum Nampikkai was published in 2014. Her English translation of Ahilan’s poetry titled, Then There Were No Witnesses is recently published by Mawenzi House, Toronto.
About Poetry with Prakriti
‘Poetry with Prakriti’ began in 2007, as a ten-day annual festival. The aim was to get poets from varied backgrounds to read and share their poetry in various languages at different locations across the city. What makes the Poetry with Prakriti unique, is that readings are held in diverse places bringing poetry closer to the public. Some of the poets who have been featured in the past include Alvin Pang, Geralyn Pinto, Bishnu Mohapatra etc. We are delighted to announce that Poetry with Prakriti has become a monthly series since August 2017. Various poetry events and performances are being conducted in different venues every month.
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