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Bhanu Khapil
Bhanu Khapil
	Khapil speaking at an event at Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania
Born	1968 (age 55–56)
Occupation	writer
Awards	T. S. Eliot Prize (2020)

Bhanu Kapil (born 1968)^[1] is a British-born poet and author of Indian descent. She is best known for her books The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers (2001), Incubation: A Space for Monsters (2006), and Ban en Banlieue (2015).

In 2020, Kapil won one of eight Windham-Campbell Literature Prizes.^[2]

Personal life and education

Kapil was born in 1968^[1] outside of London^[3] to Indian parents.^[4] In 1990, she moved to the United States,^[4] then returned to England in 2019.^[3] She presently spends her time in both the United Kingdom and the United States.^[1]

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.^[4]

Career

Kapil's first book, The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers, was written in the late 1990s.^[5] She has cited Salman Rushdie's 1980 Booker Prize win as a formative experience for her, saying "Perhaps then, for the first time, I understood that someone like me: could. Could look like me and write."^[6] In early 2015, The Believer held a round-table discussion of her work over the course of three days.^[7]

2009's Humanimal: A Project for Future Children took its inspiration from the nonfiction account of Amala and Kamala, two girls found "living with wolves in colonial Bengal."^[8] Douglas A. Martin has described Incubation: A Space For Monsters as "a feminist, post-colonial On the Road."^[9] Kapil also contributed the introduction to Amina Cain's short story collection I Go To Some Hollow.^[10] Her public readings have elements of performance art.^[11] Her poetry appeared in a collection edited by Brian Droitcour that was produced as part of the New Museum's 2015 Triennial.^[12]

Aside from writing, Kapil has taught at Naropa University,^[3] as well as in Goddard College’s Master of Fine Arts program.^[1] She has also contributed and co-taught in the Master's in Leadership for Sustainability program at the University of Vermont.^[13]

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.^[3] In 2022, she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.^[13]

Awards and honours

Incubation: A Space for Monsters was a Small Press Distribution best-seller.^[14] Ban en Banlieue was named one of Time Out New York's most anticipated books of early 2015.^[15]

In 2019, Kapil received the Judith E. Wilson Poetry Fellowship from the University of Cambridge.^[16]

In March 2020 Kapil was awarded one of eight Windham-Campbell Literature Prizes.^[2] In January 2021, she was awarded the 2020 T. S Eliot Poetry Prize for How to Wash a Heart.^[17]^[3] She has also received the Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors.^[16]

Publications

Books

The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers, Kelsey Street Press, 2001, ISBN 9780932716569
Incubation: A Space for Monsters, Leon Works, 2006, ISBN 9780976582021
Humanimal: A Project for Future Children, Kelsey Street Press, 2009, ISBN 9780932716705
Schizophrene, Nightboat Books, 2011, ISBN 9780984459865
Ban en Banlieue, Nightboat Books, 2015, ISBN 9781937658243
entre-Ban, Vallum, 2017, ISBN 9780995324824
How to Wash a Heart, Liverpool University Press, 2020, ISBN 9781789621686

Chapbooks

Autobiography of a Cyborg, Leroy, 2000.
Water Damage: A Map of Three Black Days, Corollary Press, 2008.
Treinte Ban: A psychiatric handbook to accompany a work undone, New Herring Press, 2014.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Bhanu Kapil". Poetry Foundation. 13 March 2023. Archived from the original on 8 January 2018. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
^ ^a ^b Flood, Alison (19 March 2020). "Eight authors share $1m prize as writers face coronavirus uncertainty". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 7 April 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Parmar, Sandeep (17 February 2021). "TS Eliot winner Bhanu Kapil: 'It's hard to study something by standing in front of it'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 5 December 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
^ ^a ^b ^c "About Bhanu Kapil". Academy of American Poets. Archived from the original on 14 March 2023. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
^ Sanders, Katherine (22 September 2011). "Bhanu Kapil". BOMB Magazine. Archived from the original on 3 April 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
^ Saifi, Rowland (18 April 2012). "Unfold is the wrong word: An Interview with Bhanu Kapil". HTML Giant. Archived from the original on 14 January 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
^ "Reading Bhanu Kapil: Day 1: In Conversation". The Believer. 18 February 2015. Archived from the original on 11 August 2018. Retrieved 10 August 2018.
^ Luczajko, Stephanie. "An Interview with Bhanu Kapil". Tinge Magazine. Archived from the original on 9 August 2016. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
^ "Reading Bhanu Kapil". The Believer. 17 February 2015. Archived from the original on 21 March 2015.
^ "I Go To Some Hollow". Les Figues Press. Archived from the original on 3 February 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
^ "Reading Bhanu Kapil: Day 3: Collectively Reading Bhanu Kapil's Ban en Banlieue". The Believer. 19 February 2015. Archived from the original on 21 February 2015.
^ "2015 Triennial: Surround Audience". New Museum. Archived from the original on 7 March 2015. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
^ ^a ^b "Bhanu Kapil". Master's in Leadership for Sustainability (MS) | UVM Rubenstein School. Archived from the original on 14 March 2023. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
^ Garner, Dwight (20 July 2008). "Inside the List". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 21 June 2018. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
^ Gilbert, Tiffany (28 December 2015). "The Most Anticipated Books of Early 2015". Time Out New York. Archived from the original on 16 March 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
^ ^a ^b "Bhanu Kapil". Faculty of English | University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
^ Flood, Alison (24 January 2021). "Bhanu Kapil wins TS Eliot poetry prize for 'radical' How to Wash a Heart". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 13 October 2022. Retrieved 26 January 2021.