Talking about one’s own work can be challenging, and it is easier to share my thoughts in a Q&A format. I hope you will find the few minutes needed to explore the information about a book that I wrote over the span of ten years.
What led you to start composing the very first poem in the collection?
I wrote the first poem of Trespassing My Ancestral Lands, titled “History,” halfway through the process of putting this book of poems together. The poem was inspired by a true incident. A few years ago, a British magazine published some of my poems and a poetry film based on them. However, the editor decided to alter my bio in the feature. When I insisted on using the original bio I had sent, according to the guidelines provided to me, the editor declined and took down my post. I felt it was more respectful to be taken down than accepting the altered identity he had invented for me. Thus, the poem “History” was born. I felt a profound satisfaction in standing up for myself. Our history has long been written by those who oppressed us, enforced through their power and education system. I felt that historical memory and trauma had returned to me, as they are passed down to us by our ancestors through genetic memories, and it was my turn to affirm that we will no longer allow others to write our history or define who we are.
What thought or incident brought the whole book together?
The very first poem for the book, Trespassing My Ancestral Lands, which is also the title poem, was written when I joined the “Silk Routes: Heritage, Trade, Practice” program, a three-year initiative (2014-2016) supported by the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs and the U.S. Department of State, at the University of Iowa. This poem laid the foundation for the book, and I built the rest upon it over the span of ten years.
Why this theme? Why now?
Trespassing My Ancestral Lands unfolds a journey through poetry, where each poem comes together to form a caravan of memories and stories, contributing to a personal and universal narrative of who I am as an individual, a national, and a citizen of the world.
The central theme of the book is the journey of self-discovery through the passages of Indian civilization, history, and culture. However, there are poems on various other themes. The poetry collection is divided into three parts. The first part, Trespassing My Ancestral Lands, focuses on the main theme. The second part, “Blood and Water,” contains poems dealing with topics such as wars, migration, women’s issues, and human rights. The last part of the book, “The Dance of the Century,” includes pandemic poems. These poems are personal accounts of metaphorically living in The Waste Land of our own time, revisiting the Fire Sermon of the Buddha from a native perspective, and while reading Whitman, writing my deepest fears and woes in my own version of “O Captain!” during the lockdown in America, far away from my family in India.
The idea behind bringing out this book was also born out of a desire to treasure my bond with India, the country of my birth, by exploring topics often considered sensitive and sometimes ignored or dismissed out of fear of controversy or a desire for acceptance. Poems like “The Temples of Knowledge,” “My Post Office Without a Country,” “Trespassing My Ancestral Lands,” “Calling the Buddhas of Bamyan,” “The Daughters of the Hindu Kush,” “Line of Control,” “Invocation,” and “Inheritance Isn’t the Matter of Choice” are just a few examples. I felt a need to address them in the best way possible for us to reflect upon and heal as a nation together. Likewise, America, the country I have adopted as my new homeland, faces similar issues, and I have addressed them as well in poems like “The Language We Speak,” “The Pending Introduction of KSC,” “The Sanity We Were Born With” and others. Did I succeed in doing that? I think so, at least at a personal level, and that matters.
However, at times I feel that both India and the USA seem to accept and dismiss such notions simultaneously. Several poems in this collection were born out of the conflict of my hybrid identity. These experiences underscore my need for the book, and the loss of one’s native identity in exchange for a new or hybrid identity, experienced by all who have migrated from their homeland to other countries, will hopefully keep its relevance at all times, not only now.
How different is Trespassing My Ancestral Lands from other poetry in the same vein or on the same subject?
The difference lies in my approach to the themes and how I engage with emotions, embracing vulnerability to ensure authenticity in my expressions. I wanted these poems to be unbiased diagnoses of the issues I address—issues we are often hesitant or reluctant to identify but wish to find remedies for.
Moreover, my poetry is, first and foremost, a conversation with myself. I strive for readers to be naturally drawn to my work and become part of these conversations. This is one reason I choose to write in everyday language, so anyone can relate to it, whether as a neutral spectator or as an engaged reader.
I didn’t write this book to add another feather to my cap. It emerged from a need and found a purpose for itself. Every poem in the book is attached to a real-life experience. Each has served as a catharsis and reassurance for me, and I hope readers can also relate to at least a few of them on a profound level.
What was the most difficult or unusual aspect of getting this book out?
The most difficult part was finding a good publisher. It took longer than I had expected for the manuscript to be accepted. Eventually, it was published by Finishing Line Press, USA, in May 2024.
What was the funniest thing that happened in the course of writing the book and sending it off to the press?
A few years ago, when I was in the process of putting together Trespassing My Ancestral Lands, I visited New Delhi and met a senior Indian author whom I admired. I shared with him the theme of my book, expressing my deep love for India, its culture, and my mother tongue Hindi, which I rarely get a chance to speak after living in the USA for 30 years. I expressed my hope that this book would strengthen that bond and respectfully invited him to write its preface. To my surprise, he sarcastically responded to my trust and said, “You speak the language of the BJP.” He declined to write the preface but offered to review my book once it was published.
His reaction, especially in front of another senior female poet of the diaspora now residing in India, was both funny and disheartening. It was funny because the honorable poet obviously didn’t know me or my work. It was disheartening because he seemed to care less about knowing others with an open mind. Now, he is too ill to read and review my book. I wish him good health and many more years of life. I hope to visit him again. This time, just to see how he is doing and present him with my book so he knows what Trespassing My Ancestral Lands truly stands for.I hope you too will get a copy for yourself and share your thoughts with me. The book is available on Amazon and other book retailers, globally online, or directly through Finishing Line Press at: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/trespassing-my-ancestral-lands-by-kalpna-singh-chitnis/. If you are interested in reviewing Trespassing My Ancestral Lands, please contact silentriverbend(at)gmail(dot)com for a review copy of the book.
About the Author:
Kalpna Singh-Chitnis is an Indian-American poet, filmmaker, and author of six poetry collections, including Love Letters to Ukraine from Uyava (River Paw Press), a finalist at the 2023 ‘International Book Awards’; Trespassing My Ancestral Lands (2024, Finishing Line Press); and Bare Soul, the recipient of the 2017 Naji Naaman Literary Prize. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her poems have been translated into twenty-one languages. Sunflowers: Ukrainian Poetry on War, Resistance, Hope, and Peace, an anthology curated and edited by her was shortlisted for the 2023 ‘National Indie Excellence Award.’ She is also the recipient of the ‘Rajiv Gandhi Global Excellence Award,’ ‘Bihar Shri,’ and ‘Bihar Rajbhasha Parishad Award’ given by the government of Bihar, India. Kalpna’s works have appeared or are forthcoming in notable journals worldwide, such as World Literature Today, Columbia Journal, The Los Angeles Review, Poetry International, Tupelo Quarterly, Cold Mountain Review, Indian Literature, Vsesvit, Silk Routes (IWP) at The University of Iowa, Stanford University’s Life in Quarantine, etc. Kalpna Singh-Chinis has been referenced in such renowned publications as the New York Times and the Huffington Post, and featured in The Telegraph, The Examiner, OC Register, Los Angeles Times, Daily Pilot, and others. She has made appearances on major broadcasting platforms like ABC Channel 7, Voice of America, Fox News, India’s National TV Network, Doordarshan, KPFK Radio, and various additional television and radio networks. Her poetry has received praise from eminent writers such as Dr. Wazir Agha, a nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature; Amrita Pritam, recipient of the Vaptsarov Award and Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; and Gulzar, a poet, Academy Award-winning lyricist, and filmmaker. She has read at the International Literature Festival Berlin (ilb), Sahitya Akademi—India’s highest academy of letters, Poets & Writers, AWP Conferences, and other international venues. Kalpna’s poems and her poetry film ‘River of Songs,’ included in the Lunar Codex, were sent to the Moon’s south pole with NASA-SpaceX-Intuitive Machine missions in 2024. A former lecturer of Political Science and Editor-in-Chief of Life and Legends, she is also an Advocacy Member at the United Nations Association of the USA. Visit her website at www.kalpnasinghchitnis.com
Watch the Book Trailer at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSX9AlxJmpM
