Film of Dust

A part of a larger project by the same name, Film of Dust is a meditation on Hindi film songs from the author’s childhood—songs his mother loved. Ekphrasis and translation converge in these poems to bring our attention to the visual and the vocal as they play out in the song from a Hindi film. A random selection of songs, played on ‘auto-play’ on Youtube is another way to approach autobiography, the author believes. For what is life if not a series of chance encounters? Both memoir and musical, the book is also a nod to the trope of the ‘double-role’ in Indian cinema, where an actor plays two roles at once. 

Biswamit Dwibedy is the author of five collections of poetry, published in India and the United States, which include Ozalid (1913 Press), Hubble Gardener (Spuyten Duyvil), MC3 (Essay Press), and Ancient Guest (HarperCollins). In 2012, he edited a dossier of Indian poetry in translation from seven different regional languages for Aufgabe, published by Litmus Press, New York. In addition to his creation in literature, Dwibedy has taught creative writing and arts practice at the Srishti Institute of Art, Design, and Technology in Bangalore, India, and now teaches at the American University of Paris.