{"product_id":"ants-and-lotus","title":"Ants and Lotus","description":"\u003ch3 class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003eAbout Usha Akella\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUsha Akella\u003c\/strong\u003e, was a finalist for Austin’s poet laureate in 2025. She has authored twelve books (poetry and plays) published by notable publishers such as the Sahitya Akademi, India and Spinifex Press, Australia. She holds three Masters, the most recent an MSt in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge, UK in 2018. Her poems have been translated into Romanian (upcoming), Macedonian and Spanish; notable, is the\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eMantis Editores (Mexico) Spanish translation of \u003ci\u003eThe Waiting\u003c\/i\u003e by Elsa Cross. She was a Creative Ambassador for the City of Austin for 2019 \u0026amp; 2015.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"\u003eShe is the founder of \u003ci\u003eMatwaala \u003c\/i\u003e(www.matwaala.com) dedicated to amplifying the visibility of South Asian diaspora poets in the U.S.A. Her work under this umbrella has gained wide recognition. She is co-host of www.the-pov.com, a website of curated interviews. She has been published in approximately 150 journals and anthologies, and featured at numerous international poetry festivals in Romania, Macedonia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Mexico, India, Colombia, Nicaragua etc.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"\u003eShe is the editor of \u003ci\u003eHum Aisecih Bolte! This is just how we speak\u003c\/i\u003e an anthology on the city of Hyderabad (2023), a festschrift on Keki N. Daruwalla published by the Sahitya Akademi (India’s academy of letters) in 2024, and the co-editor of the 2025 version of the historic \u003ci\u003eShri Sai Satcharita,\u003c\/i\u003e a hagiographic biography of the revered saint Shirdi Sai Baba.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"\u003eAbout Ruxandra Cesereanu\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRuxandra Cesereanu\u003c\/strong\u003e is one of the most important contemporary Romanian writers. She was born in Cluj on August 17, 1963. Over the last two decades, she has been writing poems and novels lauded with a number of literary honors. She is also a professor in the Department of Comparative Literature at Babeş-Bolyai University and staff member of the Center for Imagination Studies at the Phantasma institute, serving as director of the creative writing workshops on poetry, prose and screenwriting.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"\u003eCesereanu’s work displays strong influences from the Surrealist, Expressionist and Postmodernist traditions. Her experimental poetry uses psychoanalytic techniques to create collages, in which femininity and eroticism, life and death play large roles.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"\u003eHer work is not only very personal but civic. Cesereanu has experienced the uprising and fall of the Romanian communist regime. She has written about Romanian politics and is known for her civic activist work.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"\u003eCesereanu’s poetry has been translated mostly in English (5 books published in USA) and Italian (2 books published by Aracne Publishers, in Rome) but also in Hungarian, German and French. She recently published \u003ci\u003eCalifornia (on Somes),\u003c\/i\u003e translated by Adam J. Sorkin (Black Widow Press, Boston, 2023). Her achievements have been noted in \u003ci\u003eWho’s Who in Contemporary Woman’s Writing\u003c\/i\u003e, edited by Jane Elridge Miller (Routledge, London and New York, 2001) and Harold B. Segel, \u003ci\u003eThe Columbia Literary History of Eastern Europe since 1945\u003c\/i\u003e (Columbia University Press, New York, 2008).\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: justify;\" class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"\u003ePaperback: 110 pages\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Kelsay Books (February 14, 2026)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kelsay Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52268927582504,"sku":"lqa1787286966089","price":17.02,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0934\/1331\/0760\/files\/ants-and-lotus_1.jpg?v=1787286971","url":"https:\/\/boldstyleboutique.shop\/products\/ants-and-lotus","provider":"My Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}