''Poetry Chain'' is an English poetry journal of India published quarterly from

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the Capital city, capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the ...

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The Indian English poet

Gopi Kottoor Gopikrishnan Kottoor is the pen name of Raghav G. Nair (born 1956, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala), an Indian English poet. He is the founder editor of quarterly poetry journal ''Poetry Chain''. Early life and education Kottoor studied at the Loyola ...

is its founder editor. The journal was founded in 1997 with the mentoring of the Indian poet

Ayyappa Paniker Kavalam Ayyappa Paniker, sometimes spelt Ayyappa Panicker (12 September 1930 – 23 August 2006), was a Malayalam poet, literary critic, and an academic and a scholar in modern and post-modern literary theories as well as ancient Indian aesthet ...

, who was involved with the journal until his death in 2007. In 2009 it was relaunched as online-only publication.

Inception and growth

''Poetry Chain'' started in 1997 as an informal platform for budding poets. Over the years it has acquired substance and stature under the able guidance of

and his circle of poet collaborators. The journal's life patrons include

Sitakant Mahapatra Sitakant Mahapatra (born 17 September 1937) is an Indian poet and literary critic in Odia as well as English. He served in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) from 1961 until he retired in 1995, and has held ''ex officio'' posts such as the ...

, Dr HK Kaul (Poetry Society, India), and Padmasree award winner

Jayanta Mahapatra Jayanta Mahapatra (22 October 1928 – 27 August 2023) was an Indian poet. He is the first Indian poet to win a Sahitya Akademi award for English poetry. He was the author of poems such as "Indian Summer" and "Hunger", which are regarded as c ...

. The journal has published internationally renowned poets like Jayanta Mahapatra along acclaimed as well as lesser known poets from all over India. The journal went on to discover many new talents, especially young voices on the poetry horizon. Poets who have read under the ''Poetry Chain'' banner include

Ruth Padel Ruth Sophia Padel FRSL FZS (born 8 May 1946) is a British poet, novelist and non-fiction author. Life She studied Greek at Oxford, where she sang in Schola Cantorum of Oxford, wrote a PhD on ancient Greek poetry, and was a Research Fellow at W ...

Tapan Kumar Pradhan Tapan Kumar Pradhan (born 22 October 1972) is an Indian poet, writer and translator from Odisha. He is best known for his poem collection "Kalahandi" which was awarded second place in Sahitya Akademi's Golden Jubilee ''Indian Literature'' Transl ...

and

Meena Alexander Meena Alexander (17 February 1951 – 21 November 2018) was an Indian American poet, scholar, and writer. Born in Allahabad, India, and raised in India and Sudan, Alexander later lived and worked in New York City, where she was a Distinguished ...

. The Awards for poetry instituted by Poetry Chain and in collaboration with

The Poetry Society (India) The Poetry Society (India) was formed in July 1984 at New Delhi as a voluntary association to promote Indian poetry and to look after the interests of Indian Poets. The founding members included the Indian poets Keshav Malik, Jagannath Prasad Da ...

are the Father, Wake Us In Passing Poetry Prize, Agha Shahid Ali Poetry Prize, and The Best Chosen Poet of the year. In 2003,

Samartha Vashishtha Samartha Vashishtha (born 10 June 1983) is an Indian poet writing in English and Hindi, his mothertongue. He has published three volumes of poems; two in English — ''Anhadnad'', a collection of his childhood poems in the year 2000 and ''Shadow ...

won one of these prizes for the segment ''The Jungle'' from his long poem ''Simla''. In July 2009, the journal became an online-only publication.

New Poetry Chain

The New Poetry Chain which is a part of

Indian Writers Association Gopikrishnan Kottoor is the pen name of Raghav G. Nair (born 1956, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala), an Indian English poet. He is the founder editor of quarterly poetry journal ''Poetry Chain''. Early life and education Kottoor studied at the Loyola ...

. Gopi Kottoor is one out of seven member of the advisory board of Indian Writers Association.

Poetry get-together

''Poetry Chain'' has been organizing periodic get-together of poets to facilitate exchange of ideas. From June 2013, Poetry Chain has started conducting monthly meeting of both aspiring and established poets. The meeting is conducted in the last Saturday of every month. ''Poetry Chain'' has become a platform of interaction for Indian poets writing in English residing in different parts of the country. Although ''Poetry Chain'' journal has a pan Indian flavor, it has occasionally highlighted local Kerala based themes like

Onam Onam () is an annual harvest and Hindus, Hindu cultural festival celebrated mostly by the people of Kerala. A major annual event for Malayalis, Keralites, it is the official festival of the state and includes a spectrum of cultural events. H ...

also.

Publication

* ''A New Book of Indian Poems In English'' (2000) ed. by

and published by Poetry Chain and

Writers Workshop Writing workshop may refer to: *Writing circle, a group of like-minded writers supporting each others' work * Writers workshop (activity), a workshop format for critiquing and revising work **Authors' conference or writers' conference, a type of c ...

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

References

External links

Official website
1997 establishments in Kerala Defunct magazines published in India English-language magazines published in India Indian literature websites Poetry magazines published in India Magazines established in 1997 Magazines disestablished in 2007 Online literary magazines Online magazines published in India Online magazines with defunct print editions Quarterly magazines published in India {{italic title