Tamil Terrains (Paperback)

What happens when a two-thousand-year-old language rooted in a classical poetics of land moves, along with some of its peoples, through colonial and postcolonial upheaval, war, and forced or voluntary migrations?

Questioning traditional concepts of time, place, labour, love, purity and gender, this prismatic collection of poems, translations, and transcreations draws connections between ancient Sangam landscapes and North America's Indigenous lands, and between classical Tamil love poems and Southeast Asian migrant labour songs--tending, with care, the wounded memories of fisher-people, plantation workers, and undocumented refugees.

Nedra Rodrigo is a literary translator, scholar, writer, and literary curator. She has translated five novels by Devakanthan. Her forthcoming translation of Rashmy's poems, "Songs in A Time of Confinement" received the 2024 PEN Translates Award and will be published by trace press in 2026.

Geetha Sukumaran is a literary translator, Tamil poet, and humanities scholar. She has translated Sylvia Plath into Tamil, and the poet Ahilan's work into English. She was born in India and lives in Tkaronto.