The small press revolution

The past year was a sort of watershed for poets writing in English in India, with arguably the largest number of publications in recent times

Most of us would be happy to publish one book a year — or even one every few years — but Bombay-based poet Arjun Rajendran, as testimony to his prolific production, published two in 2017. In April, he released The Cosmonaut in Hergé’s Rocket (Paperwall), following it up in October with Your Baby is Starving (Aainanagar/VAYAVYA). The latter is part of a collective project, FIVE, and includes chapbooks, available as a box set, by four other poets. Significantly, the publishers of both his books are small presses. These independent organisations, unattached to any publishing behemoth and working on comparatively shoestring