KPU scholars’ anthology takes Nepali diaspora poetry to new heights

Kwantlen Polytechnic University scholar Asma Sayed and postdoctoral fellow in South Asian literary and cultural studies Pushparaj Acharya co-created Wanderings: An Anthology of Anglophone Nepali Diaspora Poetry. 

The anthology highlights the gap in western classrooms for Nepali literature and was among the titles featured at the Faculty of Arts book launch on March 26.

Sayed, who is also a Canada Research Chair in South Asian Literary and Cultural Studies, and Acharya were travelling on a train from London to Leeds in the U.K. to present a paper on Nepali literature when the idea for the anthology came about.

“We [started] having this discussion about our paper and Nepali literature, and that’s when we thought, ‘There isn’t a whole lot of material available because as we were writing and doing our research, we found there were lots of gaps in terms of the information available to people,” Sayed says.

She describes the moment as a light bulb turning on in their head. Sayed adds that when they realized these books don’t exist, they could be the ones working on them. 

The anthology took about two years to complete, while the process of choosing poets for the book took more than four months.

Acharya and Sayed selected poets based on a set of criteria: they had to be Anglophone Nepali diasporic writers who conveyed the themes of home, memory, migration, displacement, and the feeling of “in-betweenness.”

The poets also had to be established in their craft, and while there were many qualified ones, Acharya says the decision came down to how well the poet’s work embodied the main themes and if the poems flowed well together in one anthology.

After a lengthy process, 10 poets were chosen to be featured in the anthology, including Anuja Ghimire, Saraswoti Lamichhane, and Acharya himself.

“There will be no single diasporic experience. There will be many voices, but not a single story. There will be diversity,” he says.

Along with having more than one diasporic narrative, Acharya says the book is about promoting connections with other diasporas and using poetry as a space to pause and establish human connection.  

“Points of comparison, connections, and also showing how even among the diasporic writings, there are different ways of telling the stories and different ways of experiencing the world,” he adds.

Sayed says anthologies like this will break the cycle of marginalization and expose people to the broad and rich world we live in.

“This kind of work breaks the traditional models of what is perceived as literature,” she says. “There is a richness of multiple literary traditions, and I think it is important for us to not only acknowledge and recognize that, but also foster that through these kinds of publications.”

To learn more and purchase the anthology, visit www.mawenzihouse.com/product/wanderings.