Acrobat

A deeply humane new collection by a luminary of Bengali literature

A radiant collection of poetry about womanhood, intimacy, and the body politic that together evokes the arc of an ordinary life. Nabaneeta Dev Sen's rhythmic lines explore the joys and agonies of first love, childbirth, and decay with a restless, tactile imagination, both picking apart and celebrating the rituals that make us human. When she warns, "know that blood can be easily drawn by lips," her words tune to the fierce and biting depths of language, to the "treachery that lingers on tongue tips." At once compassionate and unsparing, conversational and symphonic, these poems tell of a rope shivering beneath an acrobat's nimble feet or of a twisted, blood-soaked umbilical cord -- they pluck the invisible threads that bind us together.

Nabaneeta Dev Sen was a renowned Bengali writer who published her first book of poems at the age of 18, and grew to be immensely popular through her fiction, literary criticism, travelogues, plays, political humour columns, and children's literature. She was also an acclaimed international scholar and feminist, and professor of comparative literature. Her many literary honors include the Padmashri, Sahitya Akademi Award, Bangla Academy Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Publishers' and Booksellers' Guild. Dev Sen was a mentor to innumerable students and young writers, and she was the Founder and President of the Women Writers' Association, Soi. She died in November of 2019. About the translator: Nandana Dev Sen is a writer, actor and child-rights activist. She has authored six children's books and starred in 20 feature films. As an ambassador, Nandana has worked with RAHI, Operation Smile, UNICEF, and Apne Aap International, to fight against child abuse. Nandana has served on the jury of numerous child-protection committees, international film festivals, and literary awards, including the DSC Prize for Literature in 2019. After studying literature at Harvard and filmmaking at U.S.C., Nandana worked as a book editor, a screenwriter, and a translator.