Reetika Vazirani

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Reetika Gina Vazirani
Reetika Vazirani.jpg
Born9 August 1962
Patiala, India
Died16 July 2003(2003-07-16) (aged 40)
Chevy Chase, Maryland, United States
OccupationAuthor
NationalityAmerican
GenrePoetry
Notable worksWhite Elephants, World Hotel, Radha Says

Reetika Gina Vazirani (9 August 1962 – 16 July 2003)[1] was an Indian/American immigrant poet and educator.[2]

Life[]

Vazirani was born in Patiala, India, in 1962 and went to the United States with her family in 1968. After graduating from Wellesley College in 1984, she received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to travel to India, Thailand, Japan, and China. She also received an M.F.A. from the University of Virginia as a Hoyns Fellow.[3]

Vazirani lived in Trenton, New Jersey, with her son Jehan, near the poet Yusef Komunyakaa, who was her partner and Jehan's father.[4] There she taught creative writing as a visiting faculty member at The College of New Jersey.[5] At the time of her death, Vazirani was Writer-in-Residence at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, with the intent of joining the English department at Emory University.[6] On 16 July 2003, Vazirani was housesitting in the Chevy Chase, Maryland,[4] home of novelist Howard Norman and his wife, the poet, Jane Shore. There, Vazirani killed her two-year-old son, Jehan, by slashing his wrist, and then committed suicide.[7][8][9][10][11]

Works[]

Vazirani was the author of two poetry collections, White Elephants,[12] winner of the 1995 Barnard New Women Poets Prize, and World Hotel (Copper Canyon Press, 2002),[13] winner of the 2003 Anisfield-Wolf book award. She was a contributing and advisory editor for Shenandoah, a book review editor for Callaloo, and a senior poetry editor for Catamaran, a journal of South Asian literature. She translated poetry from Urdu and had some of her poems translated into Italian.[14][15]

Her poem "Mouth-Organs and Drums" was published in the anthology Poets Against the War (Nation Books, 2003).[16]

Vazirani's final collection of poetry, Radha Says, edited by Leslie McGrath and Ravi Shankar, was published in 2009 by Drunken Boat Media.[17]

Awards[]

She was a recipient of a Discovery/The Nation Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Poets & Writers Exchange Program Award, fellowships from the Bread Loaf and Sewanee writers conferences, the Glenna Luschei/Prairie Schooner Award for her essay, "The Art of Breathing,"[19] included in the anthology How We Live our Yoga (Beacon 2001). She also had a poem in The Best American Poetry 2000.[20]

References[]

  1. ^ Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary - Inventory of the Reetika Vazirani Papers
  2. ^ "Reetika Vazirani". poets.org. poets.org. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  3. ^ Dove, Rita (2004). "Remebering Reetika Vazirani: National Press Club, Washington, DC, July 26, 2003". Callaloo. jstor.org. 27 (2): 368–369. doi:10.1353/cal.2004.0062. JSTOR 3300649. S2CID 161932063.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b "Senseless tragedy strikes the American poetry scene". chicagopoetry.com. 5 December 2004. Retrieved 23 January 2009.
  5. ^ Fiore, Kristina. "A loss for words: Reetika Vazirani, poet and professor, commits suicide at 40". The Signal. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
  6. ^ "Remembering Reetika Vazirani – A midnight wail across the cultural divide". indiaunfinished.wordpress.com. indiaunfinished.wordpress.com. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  7. ^ "The Failing Light: Why did a rising young poet plunge into despair, taking her own life and the life of her 2-year-old son?". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  8. ^ David A. Fahrenthold and Simone Weichselbaum In Final Hours, Despair Defeated Poet, 15 July 2003 Archived 7 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ "Reetika Vazirani". murderpedia.org. murderpedia.org. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  10. ^ "The Inscrutable Tragedy of Reetika Vazirani". longreads.com. longreads.com. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  11. ^ "A loss for words: Reetika Vazirani, poet and professor, commits suicide at 40". tcnjsignal.net. tcnjsignal.net. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  12. ^ "White Elephants Reetika Vazirani". cse.iitk.ac.in. cse.iitk.ac.in. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  13. ^ "World Hotel". Copper Canyon Press. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
  14. ^ "Reetika Vazirani". pshares.org. Ploughshares at Emerson College. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  15. ^ "Independence by Reetika Vazirani". theparisreview.org. theparisreview.org. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  16. ^ "Reetika Vazirani". Archived from the original on 11 March 2007. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  17. ^ "Radha Says". thecafereview.com. thecafereview.com. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  18. ^ "Reetika Vazirani". anisfield-wolf.org. anisfield-wolf.org. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  19. ^ Vazirani, Reetika (2001). "The Art of Breathing". Prairie Schooner. jstor.org. 75 (3): 63–74. JSTOR 40635929.
  20. ^ ""My Flu" by Reetika Vazirani". bestamericanpoetry.com. bestamericanpoetry.com. Retrieved 15 February 2020.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""