Tishani Doshi [ Indien ]

Tishani Doshi was born in Madras in 1975. Following graduation she studied communications and business administration at Queen's College, North Carolina, and then creative writing at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA. After returning to her native city she worked as a journalist and published articles, essays and interviews in periodicals such as »The Hindu«, "India Today", "The Financial Times", "The International Herald Tribune", »The London Magazine«, »Asian Art Magazine« and »Resurgence«. While writing she began her training as a dancer. She is now a member of an ensemble which, under the direction of the late, legendary choreographer Chandralekha, uses traditional Indian forms to develop a contemporary dance language. They perform in India and on many international stages.
Doshi's first poems were published in journals and anthologies such as »The Times Literary Supplement", »The Southern Poetry Review«, »Wasafiri« and »Reactions«. In 2001 she received the British Eric Gregory Award, and in 2005 her poem »The Day We Went to the Sea« won the All India Poetry Competition. "Countries of the Body", her début collection was awarded the Forward Poetry Prize in the UK for the best first collection in 2006.
This volume of poems – dedicated to her teacher and choreographer, Chandralekha – charts an intense engagement with the body. »Dance has affected my writing in a very pr ofound way, because dance demanded far more discipline than I ever demanded of myself as a writer. It forced tautness into the work, the removal of extra flab, forced laziness out, forced me to take it seriously.« The theme of corporality is also often found in her texts, particularly the extreme situations of birth, sex, death and the resort to violence. The social significance of the body is similarly taken into account. Over and over again, the main focus is on the different sexes and their roles, especially addressing social interactions within romantic relationships and the family. Travel and placelessness – London, Portugal, the USA, Sri Lanka and native Madras are mentioned – are a further motif in this meditative, image-rich text, whose well-disposed rhythm lends it a melancholic tone. »Poetry comes from a place of melancholy for me. It comes from pain, something negative.«
In her pr ose, however, Doshi cultivates a different kind of flow. Her first novel, "The Pleasure Seekers", which she has just finished, is full of "humor, poetry, dreams and family life". The novel will be published in s pr ing 2008. Doshi is also working on a biography of the cricket star Mutthiah Muralitharan. She currently lives in Madras.

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