Assam poet features in top US poetry fellowship finalists

GUWAHATI, Aug 3: Assamese poet Abhijit Sarmah has been shortlisted as a finalist for the coveted Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships in the United States.

The Poetry Foundation awards five Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships annually. Perhaps the largest award offered to young poets in the US, the USD 27,000 prize is intended to support exceptional US poets between 21 and 31 years of age.

Abhijit, a native of Dibrugarh, at present is a second-year PhD student in the Creative Writing Programme at the University of Georgia.

“Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship is perhaps the largest fellowship given to US poets and poets based in the US like me. To make it to the list of finalists is considered a commendable feat,” Abhijit told The Assam Tribune on Thursday.

“I was really amazed when I received the news. I couldn't have achieved that without the guidance and support of my PhD supervisor Professor LeAnne Howe.”

Abhijit is the only Indian in the list of 12 finalists that was announced on Wednesday. No other individual from the Northeast India has ever been featured there.

The five fellowship recipients, who will be announced in late August, will get an invitation to publish in Poetry magazine, apart from the grant. All 12 finalists will receive a stipend to attend a professional development opportunity of their choice.

Abhijit is a poet and researcher of indigenous writings, with particular focus on Native American women writers and literatures from Northeast India. He holds an M Phil degree from Dibrugarh University. His work has been published in Poetry, The Margins, Lunch Ticket, Lincoln Review, The Albion Review, Glassworks Magazine, Gasher, Rigorous Magazine, The Emerson Review and Chapter House Journal among others.

Abhijit was born to Nagen Sarmah and Ruby Sarmah in Dibrugarh. He did his Bachelor's Degree from Jagannath Barooah College, Jorhat and his Master's from Dibrugarh University in English literature.

Some of Abhijit’s published works are ‘Waiting’, ‘On Asking My Mother about Winter 1990’, ‘In Memoriam Sam Stafford’, ‘Because She Remembers Thangjam Manorama’, ‘Abecedarian for My Father’s Childhood Memories’, ‘Never Heard Back’, ‘Detangling/Weaving’, ‘Daughters’, ‘For You Left Like Bordoisila’, ‘Ghazal for Stateless Bodies’ and ‘Duplex (Floating Bodies on the Ganges)’ among others.