Bountiful Instructions for Enlightenment

Bountiful-Front-Cover


“Warning! This book is filled with unexpected turns, happy surprises, fresh language (in every sense), sudden awakenings, quick tears, knowing laughter. And above all — delight.” — Susan Griffin, A Chorus of Stones and Bending Home


“Electric combination of lyric poetry and theater … Minal Hajratwala charms, sears, shocks and delights us. A fresh species of enlightenment.”
— Meena Alexander, Birthplace with Buried Stones


“A stunning collection that modulates between steady narratives full of anchored images and storytelling, and playful voices occurring out of lyric utterance.”
— Prageeta Sharma, Undergloom and Infamous Landscapes


From the award-winning author of Leaving India, a long-awaited debut collection of poetry

Bountiful Instructions for Enlightenment gathers Minal Hajratwala’s poems and, for the first time in print, the script of her theatrical extravaganza “Avatars: Gods for a New Millennium.” Against the backdrop of a deeply political reality, she wrestles the sacred and the profane, urging them toward intimate — and occasionally ecstatic — union. The poems and performance texts here, written over the past two decades, give voice to a wild and woolly pantheon of characters, from the Buddha to Lady Gaga.

Get the book now!

In the US/India/worldwide:

Buy directly from The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective.

Also available for order at local independent bookstores, via Small Press Distribution, on Bookshop.org, or on Amazon.

Sneak Peek

A few notes on how my community helped create this book.

A few poems from the book:
Abode
Angerfish
Archaeologies of the Present: The Hungry
Archaeologies of the Present: The Professionals
Force Hexagram
Cult Statue of a Goddess
The Goddess of Lemons
Her Discourse on the Leaf
Midnight in the Hall of Buddhas
Minstrelry
Pole
Saying It/Not Saying It
The Shallows

Listen

Audio versions of poems on SoundCloud

Events

Come out and party! Check here for events in your area.

Media Kit

Request an advance review copy.

Download press release, author interview, sample poem.

Buzz

Review by Afric McGlinchey in Sabotage Reviews

Podcast discussion of the book, by poets Andrea Hollander  & Elizabeth Harlan-Ferlo, at Late Night Library

Review by Glynn Young at TweetSpeak

Featured guest poet at The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed