Kunjana Parashar

Kunjana Parashar is an Indian poet based in Mumbai,[1] and an associate editor at Bombay Literary Magazine.[2] Her debut collection They Gather Around Me, the Animals was selected by Diane Suess as the winner of Barbara Stevens Poetry Book Award 2024.[3]

Career

Parashar's poems first appeared in various literary magazines in 2019,[4][5][6] and her poetry since has been featured in Poetry Northwest,[7] The Adroit Journal,[8] Singapore Unbound,[9] Sixth Finch,[10] amongst others. In 2025, alongside fellow writers Kinjal Sethia and Yashasvi Vachhani, Parashar co-founded the Osmosis Poetry Prize, aimed at celebrating emerging Indian poets in English language.[11][12]

Her first collection They Gather Around Me, the Animals was published in 2025 by NFSPS Press.[13] One of her poems, titled 'A Poem With No Birds in it', was read by the English actor Sean Bean[14] for the UK program Get Birding.

Reception

Before joining Bombay Literary Magazine as an editor, Parashar's poetic voice was described in the publication by the poet Pervin Saket as "fascinating", "novel" and "poised to captivate the ‘larger reading public’".[15]

American poet Diane Suess praised the evolution of form in her debut collection, ranging "from the devotional to the surreal, from contrapuntal to pantoum ... written in both the presence and the absence of the animals ... in a diction which opens the lexicon to the language of the ecological imagination."[16] Writing about the collection for Outlook, poet Aranya Padil called Parashar's vision as "more-than-human ... deepening the anthropocentric gaze, even as it embraces sensitivity while engaging with the creatures and life-forms [in] our lived environment".[17] Critics frequently highlighted the collection's ecological themes and its exploratory engagement with the relationship between humans and the natural world.[3][18][19]

Awards

  • 2021: Toto Funds Art Award[20][21]
  • 2021: Deepankar Khiwani Memorial Prize
  • 2024: Barbara Stevens Poetry Book Award[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Check out this poetry book that explores the world of animals". Mid-day. Retrieved 2026-07-09.
  2. ↑ "People & Principles - The Bombay Literary Magazine | TBLM". 2023-06-12. Retrieved 2026-07-09.
  3. 1 2 3 Mitra, Srijani (2025-10-18). "'They Gather Around Me, the Animals': Kunjana Parashar's poetry unites the domestic and the wild". Scroll.in. Retrieved 2026-07-09.
  4. ↑ "Poetry of the Wild: A talk with Kunjana Parashar". A Thousand Mornings. 2025-10-13. Retrieved 2026-07-09.
  5. ↑ homologylit (2019-11-01). "Kunjana Parashar". Retrieved 2026-07-09.
  6. ↑ "forcing an epiphany | Kunjana Parashar | Glintmoon". glintmoon.com. Retrieved 2026-07-09.
  7. ↑ Parashar, Kunjana (2020-09-28). "Amphibian". Poetry Northwest. Retrieved 2026-07-09.
  8. ↑ "Issue Fifty-Two: Kunjana Parashar". The Adroit Journal. 2025-01-26. Retrieved 2026-07-09.
  9. ↑ ""Ode to Watching My Sister Eat Lychees" and Other Poems". Singapore Unbound. 2026-06-12. Retrieved 2026-07-09.
  10. ↑ "Sixth Finch - Fall 2024 - Kunjana Parashar - ALL THE PLACES OF SLEEP". sixthfinch.com. Retrieved 2026-07-09.
  11. ↑ Farook, Ifaam Bashir & Zainab Ummer (2025-07-21). "These poems by Ifaam Bashir and Zainab Ummer Farook won the inaugural Osmosis Poetry Prize". Scroll.in. Retrieved 2026-07-10.
  12. ↑ "Founders Of The Osmosis Poetry Prize Share A Sneak Peek Into Their New Initiative". Free Press Journal. Retrieved 2026-07-10.
  13. ↑ "Book Review: They Gather Around Me, The Animals by Kunjana Parashar". KITAAB. 2025-09-25. Retrieved 2026-07-09.
  14. ↑ Sean Bean's powerful reading of Kunjana Prashar's 'Poem with No Birds In It' 🪶. Retrieved 2026-07-09 – via www.youtube.com.
  15. ↑ "'Offering' & Other Poems - The Bombay Literary Magazine | TBLM". Retrieved 2026-07-09.
  16. ↑ "National Federation of State Poetry Societies - Current Strophes, August 2025 Issue". nfsps.net. p. 9. Retrieved 2026-07-09.
  17. ↑ "On Reading Kunjana Parashar's Debut Collection of Poetry: 'They Gather Around Me, The Animals'". Outlook India. 2025-12-20. Retrieved 2026-07-10.
  18. ↑ "Parashar, Kunjana, They Gather Around Me, The Animals – The British Society for Literature and Science". www.bsls.ac.uk. Retrieved 2026-07-09.
  19. ↑ "A Praise Song for Creatures Big and Small — A Review of "They Gather Around Me, the Animals" by Kunjana Parashar". tintjournal.com. Retrieved 2026-07-09.
  20. ↑ "Creative Writing in English". Toto Funds the Arts. Retrieved 2026-07-09.
  21. ↑ "TPML staffer wins Toto Funds the Arts award". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 2026-07-09.
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