Fiction
Translations from the Mother Tongue
A poet-translator explores the impossible task of carrying meaning between languages, and what is found in the space of that impossibility.
·April 7, 2026·4 min read
K
Kabir Mohanty
1 article published
Kabir Mohanty's work as poet and translator creates conversations between past and present, tradition and experiment. His acclaimed translations of Bhakti poetry have introduced ancient mystics to new generations of readers. His own poetry collections—"Electric Mantras" and "The Algorithm of Desire"—fuse classical Indian forms with contemporary concerns, from dating apps to climate anxiety. He has received the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Mohanty teaches in the MFA program at Syracuse University. His anthology "New Indian Poetry" is considered the definitive survey of post-liberalization verse.