PRAISE FOR TERRARIUM

TERRARIUM is a richly layered and deeply felt poetry debut. I am impressed by the thoughtful artfulness of this original work, its gravitas, and its urgent subject matter – but mostly, I am moved by the tender joy and unabashed delight with which the speakers of these poems show me, as Bahuguna writes, “how to love this bruised and bumpy earth.” After I read this collection, I felt as though I still could.

       — TARFIA FAIZULLAH, author of Registers of Illuminated Villages and Seam

Bahuguna writes her very self into the earth – she gulps air like a pelican, is tightly-woven like a pinecone and her headaches are the size of Crete. Places, their precise and physical geography, are the engine of this collection. Bahuguna’s voice, direct but subtle, is necessary for these times when the world seems irredeemable, when our fears are well-founded, and anxiety is really a sign of sanity. This is a confident debut that coheres into a substantial whole. It shines with the effortlessness of long practice and deep attention.

      —SRIDALA SWAMI, author of Escape Artist and Reluctant Survivor

TERRARIUM is a charming and powerful debut. Urvashi Bahuguna guides us through a world where “the only event is humidity,” and yet the terrain and radiant heart of these poems prickle and shimmer with a vibrance hardly ever seen in a debut. In these poems, “every door and window need[s] a mesh jaali to keep the mosquitoes and tree snakes out,” highlighting the beautiful dangers of this world alongside its many wonders. This is a poet whose brave poems serve up timely guidance on “how to love this bruised and bumpy earth.”

           —AIMEE NEZHUKUMATATHIL, author of Oceanic and Lucky Fish