Sonnet Mondal –soaring on the wings of poesy

One of the young voices of English poetry in India, Sonnet Mondal has aptly represented India in two big festivals of the literary world in a span of less than one year. Besides, Sonnet’s inclusion in the ‘CultureTrip’ website’s Top Five Literary Entrepreneurs of Indian Poetry in March 2015 has marked him as a new hope among the younger generation poets of India.

Most recently, Sonnet went to perform his poetry on invitation at the ‘Uskudar International Poetry Festival’, Istanbul organized and sponsored by the Government of the Republic of Turkey, Uskudar Municipality in particular and the Turkish Cooperation & Coordination Agency. The festival encompassed Sonnet’s poetry readings along with other invitees from 16 countries at several places in Istanbul along with panel discussions at the Bağlarbaşı Cultural Centre, Istanbul from 4th to 11th April 2015. The opening ceremony witnessed a poetry-reading marathon of poets from 16 countries among which the Indian representation was a notable one. Further, Sonnet read his poems and interacted with the audience particularly at three places including two universities and schools.

Speaking about poetry in general at Bağlarbaşı Cultural Centre, Sonnet said, For him Poetry itself is the inspiration to pen more poetry and one should move forward with poetry with sheer love towards it notwithstanding any unhealthy criticism that often condense the vitality of poets.

Some other prominent poets in the festival were Ali Jimale Ahmet, Ryszard Krynicki, Sead Begoviç, Ladan Osman, Tobias Burghardt, Leopoldo Castilla, Fatma Şengil Süzer, Ahmet Murat and Metin Celal.

Before this, Sonnet was invited to read his poetry at the historical Bridges event of Struga Poetry Evenings, Macedonia in August 2014 where he was perhaps the youngest Indian to have ever represented his country.

Mondal, who is currently one of the featured writers at the International Writing Program, The University of IOWA, is currently working on his upcoming project ‘Echoing Shadows’-a unique blend of Poetry and Kathak dance form which is about to hit the cultural stages later this year.