Touch & Ms Militancy
“Revelations come to her frequently and prophecies linger at her lips. Older by nearly half a century, I acknowledge the superiority of her poetic vision.”
Meena Kandasamy exploded on the literary scene in her early twenties. Touch (2006), themed around caste and untouchability, came with a foreword by Kamala Das; when it appeared in Malayalam, Youth Congress members burned the book in Kollam over its poem on Gandhi. Ms Militancy (2010), an explosive feminist retelling of Tamil and Hindu myths, has become a feminist cult classic in South Asia.
“These caustic poems with their black humour, sharp sarcasm, tart repartees, semantic puns and semiotic plays irritate, shock and sting the readers until they are provoked into rethinking the ‘time-honoured’ traditions.” — K. Satchidanandan
“She makes a Rimbaudian attempt at clearing the decks and telling it straight. Anger is the engine of Kandasamy’s poems.” — Anjum Hasan, The Hindu Literary Review
“A sharp eye for detail, a grasp of worldly insight, and an appetite for phrasal shape-shifting.” — Ranjit Hoskote
“Fierce and exuberant wit and wordplay.” — Arundhathi Subramaniam, Poetry International
“Always ended with a twist that felt like a brutal kick to patriarchy’s testicles.” — Niren Tolsi, Mail & Guardian