Emerging BIWOC Poet Spotlight: A. Anupama
This monthly series features poems by women of color in the early stages of their publishing careers. It is our intention to create more space at Perugia for the work of poets who are Black, Indigenous, and women of color (BIWOC). We hope using our platform to highlight this work will expand the readership of the poets we spotlight. This series aligns with Perugia’s mission to celebrate and support emerging women poets, inclusive of gender-expansive identities; featured poems will be from poets with no more than one published full-length collection. We’d love to hear from readers with suggestions for poems & poets to feature.
August 2025 Poet: A. Anupama
by her eyes
Just when I try to begin, the page seems unfriendly. I only wanted to say that I miss how she was, and what if she had had her mind all these years. What life would this have been for all of us? What if I had stayed inside the shell? Fluttering free of the mud now, there's hardly anything to regret. She has been well-cared for. And so have I. One day, we will rejoin our sisterhood, like stitches on a holder waiting for the collar to begin, with a knit-stitch that will lie flat against the skin instead of curling away.
Source
Saffron Threaded, dancing girl press, 2021
Poet bio
A. Anupama is a Tamil-American poet, artist, reviewer, and translator whose work has appeared in publications including Prairie Schooner, Tupelo Quarterly, Cloudbank, and The Rumpus. Her poetry chapbook, Saffron Threaded, is available from dancing girl press. A graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts and Northwestern University, recent honors include Pushcart Prize nominations, a 2025 Arts Alive Award (part of the New York State Council on the Arts), the 2023 Literary Artist Award from the Arts Council of Rockland (New York), and a fellowship at the Center for Book Arts in NYC. She has taught creative writing to kids and teens as an instructor at Writopia Lab, as well as to undergraduate writers and editors as an adjunct professor. Her current work in healthcare communications has covered women’s health, oncology, and other medical areas. Anupama lives with her family in Upper Nyack, New York.