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.
Kapil’s first book, “The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers”, was written in the late 1990s. She has cited Salman Rushdie’s 1980 Booker Prize win as a formative experience for her. Kapil’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 College’s Master of Fine Arts program. She has also contributed and co-taught in the master’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 “How to Wash a Heart” won the prestigious 2020 T. S. Eliot Prize.
In 2020, Kapil also won one of eight Windham-Campbell Literature Prizes.
Kapil’s work continues to inspire readers and writers around the world. Her exploration of identity and the immigrant experience in “How to Wash a Heart” has been particularly impactful.
She is currently a lecturer in creative writing at King’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.