New Delhi, September 19, 2015: Oxford Bookstore in association with Hawakaal Publishers and Literature Studio celebrated the formal launch of the expanded second edition of My Glass of Wine by Kiriti Sengupta at Oxford Bookstore on 18th September. Eminent scholar, critic and poet, Sukrita Paul Kumar and Chandra Shekhar Dubey started the event. The launch was followed by a discussion between Kiriti Sengupta and Vibha Malhotra, founder of Literature Studio. The event will be moderated by Ashmi Ahluwalia. Following the discussion, the author will conduct a hands-on creative writing seminar on “Hybrid Literature.”
The first edition of My Glass of Wine was formally declared a bestseller within a month from its release in February, 2014. The book has been widely reviewed and appreciated in several literary journals both in India and in the United States, and it has been inducted into the Ryerss Museum & Library (Philadelphia, USA), a curated museum which presents ‘significant’ literary work to the general reading public.
And now Hawakaal Publishers, Kolkata have published an expanded second edition of My Glass of Wine that, according to Prof. Bashabi Fraser (Director, SCoTS, Edinburgh Napier University), is a ‘combination of personal reflections, interspersed and augmented by verse rhythms,’ and it is an ‘experiment that works in what is a compelling confessional narrative which is enriched by the flavours of Bengal and will resonate with a global audience with its postmodern diversity.’ Internationally acclaimed poet Debjani Chatterjee has remarked, ‘The author identifies spirituality foremost among his list of interests.”
No wonder the expanded second edition has been a bestselling title in the United States soon after its release on Amazon on August 18. My Glass of Wine is aimed to fetch more readers to the intriguing and beautiful world of poetry, Sengupta says.
Oxford Bookstore Connaught Place offers a carefully curated list of titles for booklovers to browse through and buy and perhaps the world’s largest assortment of teas in the hip Cha Bar, to create a holistic experience for book lovers. The entrance leading to the bookstore houses a big Neon Wall, a cloud of words in English-Hindi-Latin that envelopes book lovers in a universe of emotions linked to reading. Inside, in the tranquil space, hands-on staff, knowledgeable and highly trained book specialists, offer suggestions of handpicked titles from major, independent and indie publishers: a great selection of books, some exclusive to Oxford Bookstore. The selection features both emerging and established authors from India and the world. Shelves stocked with the best in Indian Writing, International Fiction and Translations take one into a spacious, elongated Reading Room which opens onto a dedicated Events Space. Well-researched sections on Languages and New Age books address issues of addiction, relationships, unexplained phenomena, and showcase the best of thinkers and Indian gurus. A wide range of titles in Travel Writing, books that showcase the very essence of New Delhi and a specially curated section of books on tea are other highlights. Children have an exclusive space for browsing, activities and reading and parents can look forward to the Top 10 Gift Books in each age group for a quick and easy pick. Amongst the best in books for different age groups are ones that help the young ones deal with experiences relevant to their age.
About the Author:
Kiriti Sengupta is a bilingual poet and translator in both Bengali and English. He is the author of three bestselling titles, My Glass Of Wine, a novelette based on autobiographic poetry, The Reverse Tree, a nonfictional memoir, and Healing Waters Floating Lamps [Poetry]. Kiriti’s other works include: My Dazzling Bards [literary critique], The Reciting Pens [interviews of three published Bengali poets along with translations of a few of their poems], The Unheard I [literary nonfiction], Desirous Water [poems by SumitaNandy, contributed as the translator], and Poem Continuous – Reincarnated Expressions [poems by Bibhas Roy Chowdhury, contributed as the translator]. Reviews of his works can be read on The Fox Chase Review and Reading Series, Muse India, Red Fez Magazine, Word Riot, and in The Hindu Literary Review, among other places. Sengupta has also co-edited three anthologies: Scaling Heights,Jora Sanko – The Joined Bridge, and Epitaphs.
About the Speakers:
Sukrita Paul Kumar was born and brought up in Kenya and at present she lives in Delhi, writing poetry, researching and teaching literature. An Honorary Fellow of International Writing Programme, University of Iowa (USA) and a former Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, she was also an invited poet in residence at Hong Kong Baptist University. She has published five collections of poems in English including Rowing Together, Without Margins and Folds of Silence. Sukrita’s major critical works include Narrating Partition, Conversations on Modernism, The New Story and Man, Woman and Androgyny. Some of her co-edited books are Ismat, Her Life, Her Times,Interpreting Homes in South Asian Literature and Women’s Studies in India: Contours of Change. As Director of a UNESCO project on “The Culture of Peace”, she edited Mapping Memories, a volume of Urdu short stories from India and Pakistan. She has two books of translations, Stories of Joginder Paul and the novel Sleepwalkers. She is the chief editor of the book on Cultural Diversity in India published by Macmillan India and prescribed by the University of Delhi. A recipient of many prestigious fellowships and residencies, Sukrita has lectured at many universities in India and abroad. A solo exhibition of her paintings was held at AIFACS, Delhi. A number of Sukrita’s poems have emerged from her experience of working with homeless people.
Chandra Shekhar Dubey is a poet, writer, translator and Associate Professor in the Department of English, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Evening College. He has publised three collection of poems titled Ripples On A Stone(Writer’s Workshop, Kolkata, 1994), Substance of Shadows (Swati Publication, New Delhi, 2007), and Real Resonance – The Unreal Mind (Shambhabi, Kolkata, 2015). His poems, research papers, reviews, short stories and translations have been published in many national and internal journals of repute. His doctoral dissertation abstract was published in Gissing Journal, Bradford, England, 1994. His book, George Gissing: An Apostle of New Morality, was published by Common Wealth Publishers, New Delhi, 1996. He edited the translated version of The Ramcharitmanas with Romanization, a project of Mauritius Government published by Richa Publication, New Delhi, 1999. He worked in interdisciplinary innovation projects of University of Delhi, as co-i0nvestigator and mentor. He has been featured in My Dazzling Bards, a book of literary critical analysis written by KiritiSengupta, and published by The Poetry Society of India, Gurgaon. His poems have been widely anthologized in several anthologies published from India, Australia, Canada and the United States.
Vibha Malhotra is a reviewer, writer, editor, and translator, and she is the founder of Literature Studio. She did her Master of Arts in Creative Writing from Newcastle University, UK. At present Vibha teaches creative writing to all age groups. Before taking up literature as a career, Vibha worked as a software engineer for 9 years.