Ranjit Hoskote is a poet, cultural theorist and curator. His previous collections include
Jonahwhale,
Hunchprose among many others. He has received the Sahitya Akademi Golden Jubilee Award, the Sahitya Akademi Translation Award, the S.H Raza Award for Literature and the JLF researcher-in-residence at BAK, Utrecht. His poems have been translated into German, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Irish, Swedish, Spanish and Arabic.
Ranjit Hoskote's eighth collection of poetry enacts the experience of standing at the edge-of a life, a landscape, a world assuming new contours of going up in flames. Yet the protagonists of these poems also stand at the edge of epiphany.
Icelight transits between audacious exploration and contemplative retreat, doubt and belief, melancholia and momentum. Hoskote's poetry unseals deep scales of geological time and strata of historical memory, always aware of the perils currently confronting the planet. His poems are informed by the unfolding crises of war and ecocide. This is a book about transitions and departures, eloquent in its acceptance of transcience in the face of mortality.
Icelight is a remarkable collection of poetry that offers readers a thought-provoking exploration of universal themes and concerns such as the interconnectedness of people through distances of time and memory. Ultimately, Hoskote's skillful use of language, structure, and imagery creates a deeply moving reading experience.Like jewelled windows in a war-torn city, Ranjit Hoskote's exquisitely crafted poems offer tantalizing glimpses of a disintegrating world.
