Oxygen: Parables of the Pandemic

by Kalpna Singh-Chitnis (Editor and Contributor)

"Oxygen: Parables of the Pandemic," edited by Kalpna Singh-Chitnis, and published by River Paw Press (USA), contains sixty-two pandemic poems and flash fiction by forty-five international poets. The works in this collection, like rain, water the seeds of our consciousness to break from the illusion of our separateness. In our existence, joy, and sorrow, we are one and together, aware of our neglects, sufferings, the joy of our survival, and the importance of our mindful action to save our planet. For more information, visit - riverpawpress(dot)com

106 pages, Paperback

First published March 21, 2022

About the author

Kalpna Singh-Chitnis is a Pushcart-nominated award-winning Indian-American poet, writer, actor, and filmmaker. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Life and Legends and Translation Editor of IHRAF Literary in New York. She has published five books of poetry and her works have appeared in notable journals like World Literature Today, Columbia Journal, Tupelo Quarterly, Cold Mountain Review (Appalachian State University), California Quarterly, Indian Literature, Silk Routes Project (The University of Iowa), Life in Quarantine (Stanford University), etc. Her full-length poetry collection, Bare Soul was awarded the 2017 “Naji Naaman Literary Prize for Creativity.” Her awards and honors include the “Bihar Rajbhasha Award,” given by the government of Bihar, India, “Bihar Shri,” and the “Rajiv Gandhi Global Excellence Award.” She was also nominated for the “Honor of Yeast Litteraire” by Levure Litterarie magazine in Paris, France in 2015.

Kalpna Singh-Chitnis' poems from her award-winning book "Bare Soul" and her poetry film "River of Songs," written and directed by her, will travel to the Moon on two separate NASA missions. Her poems included in the "Nova collection" of the Lunar Codex Time Capsule will launch in 2022 with SpaceX's "Intuitive Machines Nova-C lander mission to Oceanus Procellarum" and her short film "River of Songs" included in the "Polaris Collection," of the Lunar Codex Time Capsule, will travel with SpaceX "Astrobotic Griffin lander, NASA VIPER rover" mission to the Lunar South Pole in summer 2023.

Kalpna’s poetry has received praise from eminent writers, such as Nobel Prize in Literature nominee Dr. Wazir Agha, Vaptsarov Award, and Ordre des Arts et des Lettres recipient Amrita Pritam, and poet and Academy Award-winning lyricist, and filmmaker Gulzar. She has read her works at Sahitya Akademi, India’s highest academy of letters, Poets & Writers, AWP Conferences, and other venues internationally. Her works have been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, German, Albanian, Czech, Arabic, Nepali, Urdu, Bengali, Telugu, Malayalam, Gujarati, and published in anthologies worldwide. The most recent among them are 100 Great Indian Poems (Bloomsbury, India), Unseen (Skylark Publications, UK), Collateral Damage, Carrying the Branch Poets in Search of Peace (Glass Lyre Press, USA), and Paws Healing the Earth, Oxygen: Parables of the Pandemic and Ukrainian Poems on War, Resistance, Hope and Peace (River Paw Press).

A former lecturer of Political Science, Kalpna Singh-Chitnis holds a degree in Film Directing from the New York Film Academy and works as an independent filmmaker in Hollywood. Known for her feature film "Goodbye My Friend" and her short film "Girl With An Accent," she pioneers in bringing socially conscious cinema to the international platform of the "Silent River Film Festival" every year and chairs the "Silent River Film and Literary Society" a 501 C3 Non-Profit based in Irvine, California.

Website Links:

www.kalpnasinghchitnis.com
www.riverpawpress.com
www.lifeandlegends.com
www.silentriverfilmandliterarysociety...
www. hindiliteraturetoday.wixsite.com/indi...