Paperwall is the name of our press/publishing house, but it also constitutes our imprint for fiction and non-fiction. Paperwall aims to provide readers with literary gems that might otherwise remain on the margins, and privileges writing that is rigorous and experimental.
So far we have published English translations of literary prose, including Dilip Chitre’s The Bombay Quartet, translated from the original Marathi by Jayant Deshpande; and Jibanananda Das’s Three Stories, translated from the original Bangla by Chandak Chattarji. Our Marathi list includes Via Savargaon Khurd, A novel by Dinkar Dabhade and literary criticism Changalya Kavitevarchi Satutory Warning by Sachin Ketkar.
Poetrywala is our imprint for poetry. In a market where poetry continues to be a niche interest, and despite the overflowing of digital opportunities, we continue to be inspired and excited by this genre. We believe that nothing beats reading poetry in print, and to that end we have sought out the new, the old, the classic and the contemporary.
Recent publications that we are immensely proud of include the Collected Poems of Gopal Honnalgere, Jayanta Mahapatra and K. Satchidanandan, as well as the Collected Poems of Gieve Patel, a landmark to celebrate. At Poetrywala, we straddle generations. Our cherished senior poets include Dilip Chitre Adil Jussawalla, Jayanta Mahapatra, Eunice de Souza, Vijay Nambisan, Gieve Patel and K. Satchidanandan, who sit comfortably alongside contemporary poets like Mani Rao, Priya Sarrukai Chabria, E. V. Ramakrishnan, Menka Shivdasani, Sampurna Chattarji, K. Srilata and Mustansir Dalvi among others. For some, including Arun Sagar, Medha Singh, Amlan Goswami, Nitoo Das, Siddhartha Menon, Nabanita Kanungo, Arjun Rajendran, and Ashwani Kumar, Poetrywala has been the publisher of many of Poetrywala’s first-time poets. Mustansir Dalvi, K. Srilata, Sachin Ketkar, Manya Joshi, Sanjeev Khandekar, Anand Thakore and Menka Shivdasani have turned to us for their second or even third collections.
Nor have we restricted our list to India alone. International poets published with us include Adrian Grima (Malta), Gabriel Rosenstock (Ireland), Claus Ankersen (Denmark), Victor Rodriguez Nunez (Cuba), Christos Koukis (Greece), Adriana Lisboa (Brazil), Miguel Manso (Portugal), Indran Amirthanayagam (Srilanka), Eurig Salisbury, Sian Melangell Dafydd, Nicky Arscott, Nia Davis, Rhys Trimble (Wales), Ravi Shankar (Indian American), Gabor Lanczkor (Hungary), Harkaitz Cano (Basque Country) and Zingonia Zingone (Italy) among others.
Our pride, joy and strength is the continued support of poets, translators and editors that we count among our friends. For us, Poetrywala is more than an imprint, it is a community.
PoetryPrimero is our platform exclusively dedicated to poets publishing a first book-length collection. Perhaps only another poet can empathise with the long hard struggle to get one’s first book out. PoetryPrimero makes room for new voices that need to be heard. We welcome submissions, and urge interested poets to take the time and trouble to read some of the titles we have already published in order to get a better sense of what we look for.