Voices in/of/about Emptiness: Creative Expressions

Painting: Acrylic on Paper by Gita Viswanath

Editor’s Note

The outcome of my call for submissions on the theme of emptiness was an overfull inbox! It was heartening to note that the theme resonated with writers and artists across the boundaries of age, occupation and geographical location. I am delighted to present to you select contributions from a range of creative expressions received – poetry, prose poem, flash fiction, short story, personal essay, photo essay, photography and painting. Each one of them has defined and redefined the idea of emptiness in startlingly different ways reinforcing the suggestion in my concept note about emptiness being a word which means “the state of containing nothing,” yet paradoxically so full a word. Apart from empty containers and spaces, emptiness can be a state of being in itself, both enervating and empowering is what this collection has to say.

I sincerely wish you enjoy this anthology as much as I have in putting it together. I am grateful to Jayita Sengupta for this opportunity. The aesthetic appeal of the formatted pages is entirely attributable to Sudhir Garimalla. Many thanks to him. Last but not the least, I am deeply indebted to each and every contributor for responding to my appeal and making this a beautiful collection to be proud of.

Gita Viswanath

Gita Viswanath is a Baroda-based writer. Her novel, Twice it Happened, was published in 2019 by Vishwakarma Publications, Pune. She is also the author of a non-fiction book, The ‘Nation’ in War: A Study of Military Literature and Hindi War Cinema, published by Cambridge Scholars, UK in 2014 as well as a children's book, Chidiya. Her poems have been published in Kavyabharati No 28, New York Parrot and Coldnoon. Her short stories have been published in Muse India, Borderless Journal, and Commonwealth Union. Her short films 'Family Across the Atlantic' and 'Safezonerz' are available on YouTube.