Bhanu Kapil: Crafting Identity Through Poetry

Suman Kumar

Bhanu Kapil is a British-born poet and author of Indian descent.

Life and Career

Bhanu Kapil was born in 1968, in England, United Kingdom.

In 1990, she moved to the United States, then returned to England in 2019. She presently spends her time in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Kapil received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Loughborough University and a Master of Arts degree in English Literature from the State University of New York Brockport.

Kapilโ€™s first book, โ€œThe Vertical Interrogation of Strangersโ€, was written in the late 1990s. She has cited Salman Rushdieโ€™s 1980 Booker Prize win as a formative experience for her. Kapilโ€™s work can be difficult to classify, occupying a space between poetry and fiction. Her creative work also encompasses performance art, and her public readings sometimes blur the line between a traditional reading and a performance.

Aside from writing, Kapil has taught at Naropa University, as well as in Goddard Collegeโ€™s Master of Fine Arts program. She has also contributed and co-taught in the masterโ€™s in leadership for Sustainability program at the University of Vermont.

In 2019, Kapil received a year-long fellowship at the University of Cambridge; after the fellowship, she remained as an artist by-fellow at Churchill College.

Award and Legacy

Her collection โ€œHow to Wash a Heartโ€ won the prestigious 2020 T. S. Eliot Prize.

In 2020, Kapil also won one of eight Windham-Campbell Literature Prizes.

Kapilโ€™s work continues to inspire readers and writers around the world. Her exploration of identity and the immigrant experience in โ€œHow to Wash a Heartโ€ has been particularly impactful.

She is currently a lecturer in creative writing at Kingโ€™s College London, where she influences the next generation of writers and thinkers.

She has also received the Judith E. Wilson Poetry Fellowship from the University of Cambridge.

In 2022, she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.


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