National Anthem and Other Poems

R. Raj Rao is the author of two previous collections of poetry, Slide Show (Peepal Tree Press, UK) and For Hire (Poetrywala), and of two chapbooks, BomGay and The Canada Album (Ark Arts). National Anthem and Other Poems is his fifth collection of verse. BomGay was made into a critically acclaimed short uncensored film, directed by Riyad Wadia. Bruce King includes a discussion on Rao's work in his seminal Modern Indian Poetry in English (OUP), while there is a chapter on Rao and Adil Jussawalla in Hoshang Merchant's Forbidden Sex, Forbidden Text (Routledge). Rao's poems have appeared in prestigious foreign journals such as Poetry Wales, as well as in anthologies published by Rupa & Co., Harper Collins, the Sahitya Akademi (forthcoming) and Red Hen Press, USA (forthcoming). Rao is also the author of Nissim Ezekiel: The Authorized Biography (Viking Penguin) and of a special number of The Literary Endeavour on Bombay Poetry, the introduction to which appeared as an independent article in The Journal of Commonwealth Literature,UK. Rao's other work includes novels, short stories, plays and critical nonfiction.'A poetry of open sensuality with no holds barred is what characterizes the work of R Raj Rao. As in his previous volumes, Rao explores the homosexual world with a sense of droll humour, biting irony and startling frankness, a scatology tempered by form and structure. From 'Gay Hind' to 'gay abandon', from encounters in local trains to a visit to a ribald Rio de Janeiro, the poet extends the frontiers of gay literature in India. An extra bonus is a series of deftly written poems set off by his admiration for and his eventual meeting with his namesake, the novelist Raja Rao in Austin in the US.' -Manohar Shetty