Kolkata has a vibrant future for English poetry: Sharmila Ray

“Kolkata has made its name on the map of English poetry writing in India,” says poet, translator and nonfiction essayist Sharmila Ray. Having witnessed the city’s English poetry scene evolve over three decades, Ray has seen it grow from a marginal, uncertain pursuit into a more visible and confident literary space.

Ray began publishing in the early 1990s, a time when English poetry in the city had few platforms and even fewer takers. “We were not called,” she recalls, pointing to the limited recognition writers received then. “Today, there is a dramatic shift and things have changed.” In a candid conversation, she reflects on how time, history and changing readerships have shaped both her work and Kolkata’s literary culture.From the 1990s to now: Finding a voiceRay’s writing journey spans decades. While she began writing much earlier, publication came later. “I started writing long back, but I started publishing during the early 90s,” she says. Opportunities were scarce, something she still finds disheartening. The contrast with the present, she notes, is striking, with more platforms and publishers now engaging with poetry.‘History gave me context, not just knowledge’A historian and long-time professor, Ray believes her academic training has deeply influenced her writing.

“We’re all political animals, right? Without the political backdrop, you cannot be anywhere,” she says. For her, history offered a way to situate herself — not only within India, but in a wider global context. “It teaches culture, philosophy and literature,” she adds, allowing her to engage with multiple literary traditions beyond English.'MF Hussain was gracious enough to do the cover painting of my poems'One of the remarkable episodes in Ray’s career remains her collaboration with the late MF Hussain.

"That time I was pretty young. Armed with little more than hope and a phone number, I reached out. And I phoned him. I was trembling like a schoolgirl." Husain’s response surprised her. "Unlike other stars of yesteryears and now," she recalls, "he picked the phone himself. And he said, 'Yes, I'm in Kolkata'. He gave the address, telling me to send my poems there.

" Even when deadlines loomed, his assurance remained intact.

"And he did it. He gave me the cover. Neither of us knew each other personally, but he was gracious enough to do the cover painting of my poems in the book Living Other Lives."Book Fairs, scrolling generations and a literary ‘utsav’As the Kolkata Book Fair continues to draw massive crowds, Ray remains sceptical about reading habits — particularly among the young. "In my personal opinion, the younger generation, barring very few, do not read. They only scroll." She believes the fair has shifted in character.

She recalls a very different era and feels that the joy of discovery has diluted in the age of online book buying. "When I was young, the facilities of online shopping were not there.

So we were very eager to go to the book fair and see and to buy the books." For her personally, the book fair no longer feels like a natural space for poetry readings. “Unless I am called to read a poem,” she says, “I don’t like reading in a book fair because there’s so much crowd, noise — nobody listens.”

What remains, she observes, is atmosphere rather than attention where "poetry reading has become an utsav." Having participated in poetry festivals across India and abroad, Ray avoids hierarchy. "Both are different and both are beautiful." She recalls the Struga Poetry Festival in Macedonia as particularly well-organised, but also praises Indian platforms mentioning that the Pondicherry, Toshali, Chandrabhaga festivals are very well-organised."'Poetry is not like playing cricket, you have to be patient'Ray is optimistic about Kolkata’s literary future. "It's good to see people writing and there are a lot of publishers who have come up." Social media, she admits, has expanded reach and she is equally impressed by the linguistic diversity among young writers. "They're writing in Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi also." Her advice to them is to be grounded and patient. "Poetry is not like playing cricket.

When you do a sixer, it is a six.

But that doesn't happen in poetry" Despite AI and changing formats, Ray believes writing will endure. "The book, maybe the way we see it now, might go away, but the concept of the book will stay." She speaks of writing as a physical, cognitive act. "When you think, it's a wave; but when you put it into writing, it becomes a physical thing. Ultimately, reading acts as an emotional necessity, when you just want to sit quietly and read something."