Usha Akella

Usha Akella has authored ten books that include poetry, and two musical dramas. Her latest poetry book I will not bear you sons, was published by Spinifex, Australia. The Waiting published by India’s Academy of Letters, Sahitya Akademi, Delhi was translated by Elsa Cross in Spanish and published by Mantis Editores, Mexico. She edited and conceived Hum Aiseich Bolte! This is just how we speak, a poetry anthology on the city of Hyderabad released at HLF 2023. A festschrift, A house of words, in honor of Keki Daruwalla is due in 2024 from the Akademi.

She earned an MSt. in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge, UK.  She is the founder of Matwaala (www.matwaala.com), launched to increase the visibility of South Asian poets, and www.the-pov.com, a website of curated interviews. She was selected as one of the Creative Ambassadors for the city of Austin in 2019 & 2015. She is widely anthologized, and has been invited to numerous international poetry festivals, and by prestigious venues/hosts such as the Ministry of Arts and Letters, Mexico (2023); House of Lords (2016 organized by Yogesh Patel) etc.,