“Ever since “Leaves of Grass” first appeared in 1855, we find Walt Whitman simultaneously falsely imitated and truly manifesting in America. Who would have thought that his latest local incarnation would be in the body and the soul of an exceptional woman born in Gaya, Bihar, India, where the Buddha experienced Enlightenment? Yet here he is. Kalpna Singh-Chitnis’s Bare Soul is a rapturous ‘Song of Herself’ erupting in a time and space…” ~ Jack Foley, Poet and Author of Grief Songs & The Tiger & Other Tales.
"Her verse may remind the reader of Rumi, the Sufis, and mystics – but Rumi, the Sufis, and mystics in fine English, with an ear for its native rhythms. Her lines bear only a vague reminiscence, "echoing" these masters as one might repeat the details of a dream upon awakening. For Kalpna's voice is as original and cross-cultural as it is universal and classic." ~ Jennifer Reeser, Poet and Author of "Indigenous," "An Alabaster Flask," "Sonnets from the Dark Lady," & "The Lalaurie Horror."
Kalpna Singh-Chitnis's poetry is ladened with original thoughts, the spontaneity of expression, and sublimity. Her poetic myth and philosophy are self-created and universal to the core. She writes with the truthfulness of emotions influenced by an intuitive whiz, creative piquancy, and true pre-requisites of poetry from her inner self. - Naseer Ahmed Nasir, Poet & Author of "A Man Outside History."
"While listening to your voice, I look into your eyes. Kalpna, you are an ocean, I can never touch the bottom, taste the fullness of your water. Endless is your variety, in expressions, in the paradox, which can be understood only with the soul." ~ Ingrid Henzler (Author and Artist, Italy) ________________________________________________________________________ "Kalpna's poetry transcends the boundaries of literary analysis, soaring above the need to categorize or dissect, or label with names as much of English literature is approached. Her words point to the potential we all have to be real, daring, courageous and utterly transparent" ~ Amata Natassa Goldie, Poet and Author of the "The Golden Thread Book."

Latest News and Updates

__________ "Trespassing My Ancestral Lands" (Finishing Line Press): Sixth poetry collection of Kalpna Singh-Chitnis, released on May 24th, 2024. __________ Recent reviews of Kalpna Singh-Chitnis' work have appeared in World Literature Today, The Statesman, The Compulsive Reader, and other notable literary venues. Journeying through space and time with Odysseus, her poems from the collection "Bare Soul" (2015)—recipient of the 2017 Naji Naaman Literary Prize—landed on the Lunar South Pole on February 22, 2024, at 6:23 p.m. as part of the Lunar Codex Project. Her poetry film "River of Songs," also archived in the Lunar Codex, touched down on the moon’s surface with the NASA–SpaceX–Intuitive Machines joint mission in November 2024. Her poetry collection "Love Letters to Ukraine from Uyava" (River Paw Press, 2023), with its Ukrainian translation by poet and Lieutenant Colonel Volodymyr Tymchuk of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was named a finalist at the 14th Annual International Book Awards by American Book Fest. The book has been reviewed in World Literature Today, The Los Angeles Review, Poetry International, Indian Literature, Tupelo Quarterly and other literary magazines. Additionally, "Sunflowers: Ukrainian Poetry on War, Resistance, Hope, and Peace" (River Paw Press, 2022), curated and edited by Kalpna Singh-Chitnis, has been shortlisted at the 17th Annual National Indie Excellence® Awards.

AWARDS

Kalpna Singh-Chitnis receives the prestigious, 30th "Poseidonia–Paestum International Poetry Prize" in Italy. The award ceremony will take place on July 5, 2025. Her poetry collection "Love Letters to Ukraine from Uyava — Любовні листи до України від Уяви," translated into Ukrainian by poet and Lieutenant Colonel Volodymyr Tymchuk, received the 2024 Hryhorii Kochur Award, one of Ukraine's highest state honors for translation. "The Tree" (Short), written and directed by Singh-Chitnis, won the "Best Experimental Short Film Award" at the 2022 North Dakota Environmental Rights Film Festival, screened at America's oldest film fest — the Columbus International Film and Animation Festival — and received an Honorable Jury Mention at India's Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival in 2023. Her poetry collection "Love Letters to Ukraine from Uyava" was a finalist for the 2023 International Book Award," and "Sunflowers: Ukrainian Poetry on War, Resistance, Hope, and Peace," an anthology curated and edited by her was shortlisted for the "2023 Indie Excellence Book Award." Her poetry collection "Bare Soul" received the "Naji Naaman Literary Prize" in 2017, and her debut Hindi poetry collection "Chand Ka Paivand" (Patch of Moon) was honored with the prestigious "Rajbhasha Parishad Award" by the Government of Bihar, India, when she was just 20 years old.