{"id":1951,"date":"2015-08-14T13:24:08","date_gmt":"2015-08-14T17:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/?p=1951"},"modified":"2018-05-25T02:58:05","modified_gmt":"2018-05-25T06:58:05","slug":"meena-alexander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/meena-alexander\/","title":{"rendered":"Meena Alexander"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--powerpress_player--><div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_2192\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-1951-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interview\/meenaalexander.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interview\/meenaalexander.mp3\">http:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interview\/meenaalexander.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/interviews-by-brainard-carey\/id1468502583?mt=2&amp;ls=1\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_itunes\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe on Apple Podcasts\" rel=\"nofollow\">Apple Podcasts<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5ZxsN79E1W6VJOjQF9GNuZ\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_spotify\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe on Spotify\" rel=\"nofollow\">Spotify<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/tunein.com\/radio\/Interviews-by-Brainard-Carey-p1236598\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_tunein\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe on TuneIn\" rel=\"nofollow\">TuneIn<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/feeds.podcastmirror.com\/interviews-by-brainard\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/goo.gl\/xSQrKY\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_more\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click here to  join mailing list\" rel=\"nofollow\">Click here to  join mailing list<\/a><\/p><figure id=\"attachment_1957\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1957\" style=\"width: 259px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1957 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Meena_-credit-marion-ettlinger2008-259x300.jpg?resize=259%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Meena_ credit marion ettlinger2008\" width=\"259\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Meena_-credit-marion-ettlinger2008.jpg?resize=259%2C300&amp;ssl=1 259w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Meena_-credit-marion-ettlinger2008.jpg?resize=882%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 882w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Meena_-credit-marion-ettlinger2008.jpg?resize=624%2C724&amp;ssl=1 624w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Meena_-credit-marion-ettlinger2008.jpg?w=1392&amp;ssl=1 1392w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Meena_-credit-marion-ettlinger2008.jpg?w=2088&amp;ssl=1 2088w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 259px) 100vw, 259px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1957\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">photo by Marion Ettlinger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/meenaalexander.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Meena Alexander<\/a> was born in Allahabad. Her father was posted by the Indian Government to Sudan, after the Bandung Agreement. She spent her early years both in Khartoum and in her ancestral home in Kerala, south India. Her poems first saw the light of day in Arabic translation, when she was a teenager in Khartoum.<\/p>\n<p>Her works include\u00a0Birthplace with Buried Stones (TriQuarterly Books\/ Northwestern University Press, 2013)\u00a0her seventh book of poetry, Quickly Changing River,\u00a0Illiterate Heart, (winner of the PEN Open Book Award) and\u00a0Raw Silk.\u00a0She has edited\u00a0Indian Love Poems\u00a0and published a critically acclaimed memoir\u00a0Fault Lines(picked as one of Publishers Weekly\u2019s Best Books of the year).\u00a0Atmospheric Embroidery\u00a0has just been published by Hachette India, 2015.\u00a0Her poems have been set to music, including \u201cImpossible Grace,\u201d the lyric base of the First Al Quds Music Award and \u201cAcqua Alta, \u201d which was set to music by the Swedish composer Jan Sandstrom for the Serikon Music Group\u2019s climate change project and performed by the Swedish Radio Choir.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Birthplace-Buried-Stones-Meena-Alexander\/dp\/0810152398\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-medium wp-image-1960 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Birthplace.jpg?resize=206%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Birthplace\" width=\"206\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Birthplace.jpg?resize=206%2C300&amp;ssl=1 206w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Birthplace.jpg?w=240&amp;ssl=1 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 206px) 100vw, 206px\" \/><\/a>Her essays on trauma, migration and memory, including <em>The Shock of Arrival<\/em> and <em>Poetics of Dislocation<\/em> are important for the evolving understanding of postcoloniality. She has also published two academic studies of early English Romanticism. Her novel <em>Nampally Road<\/em> recently reissued by Orient Blackswan has a haunting resonance with tragic events in Delhi in 2012. When it first appeared in 1991 the novel was a Voice Literary Supplement Editor\u2019s Choice.<\/p>\n<p>Her awards include those from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, Fulbright Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation for a residency at Bellagio, Arts Council of England and the American Council of Learned Societies. She has received the PEN Open Book Award, the Glenna Lusche<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Quickly-Changing-River-Poems-Triquarterly-ebook\/dp\/B00I8HP08O\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1439573122&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=quickly+changing+river\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-medium wp-image-1959 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/51OLOqgDzTL._SY344_BO1204203200_.jpg?resize=207%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"51OLOqgDzTL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_\" width=\"207\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/51OLOqgDzTL._SY344_BO1204203200_.jpg?resize=207%2C300&amp;ssl=1 207w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/51OLOqgDzTL._SY344_BO1204203200_.jpg?w=239&amp;ssl=1 239w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 207px) 100vw, 207px\" \/><\/a>si Award from <em>Prairie Schooner<\/em> and the Martha Walsh Pulver Fellowship for a poet from Yaddo. She is a recipient of the Distinguished Achievement Award in Literature from the South Asian Literary Association. <em>Passage to Manhattan: Critical Essays on Meena Alexander<\/em> (eds Basu and Leenerts) appeared in 2009. Alexander has served as an Elector, American Poets Corner, Cathedral of St. John the Divine. She is Distinguished Professor of English at the Graduate Center and Hunter College, City University of New York.<\/p>\n<p>Learn more through the following links, Journeys. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/article\/248112\" target=\"_blank\">Poetry Foundation<\/a> interview,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/meenaalexander.com\/files\/2013\/03\/Interview_muse.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Poet in the Public Sphere<\/a>, Social Text interview,\u00a0Yale Political Union address: <a href=\"http:\/\/meenaalexander.com\/files\/2013\/09\/Yale-Political-Union-Address.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">What Use is Poetry?<\/a>,\u00a0Indian Ocean Flows: <a href=\"http:\/\/meenaalexander.com\/files\/2013\/03\/MeenaPDF.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Black Renaissance interview<\/a>,\u00a0`Impossible Grace\u2019: <a href=\"http:\/\/meenaalexander.com\/impossible-grace-inspires-first-al-quds-composition-award\/\" target=\"_blank\">Poem and Music<\/a>, \u00a0and`Acqua Alta\u2019 music sung by <a href=\"http:\/\/meenaalexander.com\/acqua-alta-performed-by-serikon-and-the-swedish-radio-choir-4182015\/\" target=\"_blank\">Swedish Radio Choir<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>http:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interview\/meenaalexander.mp3Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | Click here to join mailing listMeena Alexander was born in Allahabad. Her father was posted by the Indian Government to Sudan, after the Bandung Agreement. She spent her early years both in Khartoum and in her ancestral home in Kerala, south India. Her poems first [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9,11],"tags":[67,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-1951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artists","8":"category-writers","9":"category-poet","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-us"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Meena_-credit-marion-ettlinger2008.jpg?fit=2766%2C3210&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p47FRq-vt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1951"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1974,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1951\/revisions\/1974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/museumofnonvisibleart.com\/interviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}