Interview with Megha Sood

Megha Sood is an award-winning poet, editor, and blogger from India, based in New Jersey. She is Assistant Editor of Lit Journals Mookychick (UK), Life and Legends (USA), and Literary Partner with the “Life in Quarantine” Stanford University. Also, a Pushcart Nominee and National Level Winner for the Spring Mahogany Literary Prize 2020.

A few details about yourself.

I’m an Indian born and have shifted my base to New Jersey, United States permanently after my marriage where I live with my husband and a ten-year-old son. I received my Post Graduate degree in Masters of Computer Application (M.C.A) from India and pivoted to poetry after a decade-long career as a Project Manager in the field of Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing. I started writing seriously by the end of 2017. I’m an award-winning Poet, Editor, Writer, and Blogger based in Jersey City, New Jersey. 

I’m also an Assistant Poetry Editor for the UK-based Arts and Literary Journal MookyChick, Literary Partner in the “Life in Quarantine” Project by Stanford University, USA, and Associate Editor with California based Literary Journal “Life and Legends.” My First chapbook (“A Potpourri of Emotions”) was published by the Local Gems Press, NY as a response to the 15 days Poetry Challenge. Local Gem Press is founded and managed by James P. Wagner who is the Current Beat Poet Laureate of the United States. My First Full-length collection “My Body Lives Like a Threat” is coming out by Texas-based FlowerSong Press in 2021 which is managed by Former McAllen, Texas Poet laureate Edward Viduarre and my Chapbook “My Body is Not an Apology” is soon to be published by Finishing Line Press.

In the editorial capacity, I have edited two anthologies namely “The Medusa Project” (2020) by the UK-based Literary Journal Mookychick, and “The Kali Project” to be published by the US-based Indie Blu(e) Publishing in 2021.

My numerous works have been featured internationally in literary journals, magazines, anthologies, newspapers, podcasts like Rising Phoenix Review, SONKU, Better than Starbucks, Poetry Society of New York, WNYC Studios, HUDSON Reporter, Kissing Dynamite, American Writers Review, Dime show review, Rainbow Project among others where I received my Pushcart 2020 Nomination.

I’m also a Three-time NAMI NJ State Level Poetry Contest 2018/2019/2020 winner and National Level Spring Robinson Lit Prize 2020 winner. I was also shortlisted in Pangolin Poetry Prize 2019 (USA), Adelaide Literary Award 2019 (USA), Erbacce Prize 2020 (UK), iWomanGlobalAwards 2020 (India), TWIBB Beyond Black Sakhi Awards 2020 (USA), Poetry Super Highway 2020 (USA).

My works have been selected numerous times by the Jersey City Writers Group and the Department of Cultural Affairs for the Arts House Festival. I have been chosen twice as the international panelist for the Jersey City Theater Center Online Series “Voices Around the World.” I’m the founder of my poetry blog at https://meghasworldsite.wordpress.com, which was chosen as a Top 100 Poetry Blog to be followed in 2020 by Feedspot.

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What does being an exophonic writer mean to you?

Being an exophonic writer has always presented me with a sense of challenge and a medium for continuous learning. The diversity and sometimes even the limitation of a language presents you with an opportunity to explore and go beyond your comfort zone. Writing in a language other than the native language has presented me with a plethora of choices and opportunities to share my thoughts with the world. Writing poetry has always been a cathartic experience to me and to write in a foreign language other than my native one adds a beautiful dimension to it.

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What do you write? What is your writing process like?

Writing poems has always given me that cathartic feeling and to pen down your deep thoughts have always given me solace. I think writing in any form lets you connect to your deeper self. This change in perspective made me realize that I have a grown appreciation of these moments around me. Life and introspection, nature, silence, and its aesthetics are some of the topics which influence my poetry the most. 

I also call myself a literary activist as the need to generate awareness about various social, race, and gender-based discrimination, reproductive rights violations, gun violence, mental health, and human rights violations has been the core of my writings. I have contributed to various anthologies supporting these causes.

I don’t have any specific process or preference in location for writing. I have written at the most inappropriate place and at the most ungodly hour, so to say. Initially, my writing conformed to the stream of consciousness style of writing where the deluge of words came uninterrupted and I completed my poems with few edits. As I  educated myself more about the craft, structure, and forms of poetry the more I try to refine my poems. Once I finish writing the poem, I work on its form and the structure, the line breaks, the enjambments, the title, and choose the structure which strongly resonates with the underlying emotion of the poem or the one form which brings it out strongly.

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What’s the last book that made you cry?

Bright Dead Things by Ada Limon, Lean Against This Late Hour by Garous Abdolmalekian, and Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong.

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What advice would you give to other exophonic writers?

I have a few tips/ suggestions for the exophonic writers of the literary community.

1. Read, read, and read: Poetry is an art that keeps giving. With the introduction of so many talented voices in the literary community, it’s always a joy and a learning experience to read the work of emerging and accomplished poets. Reading expands your horizon in poetry and helps in honing your craft.
2. Be Truthful: Stay true to your craft and write for self-expression. With the advent of social media, many times an emerging writer gets engrossed in the wide social acceptance instead of honing their craft. Stay focused and work on your craft. Excellent content will automatically attract followers. 
3. Never Stop Writing: I have never believed in the concept of the dreaded Writer’s block. A writer’s mind cannot be bothered by a pit stop in writing. Keep writing, a faucet only works when it’s turned on. Write a paragraph, a poem, a few pages of writing every day. Writing everyday instills a sense of discipline and your mind never gets sucked into the phantom abyss of writer’s block.
4. Never get intimidated by the challenge of writing in a foreign language, the more you explore the intricacies of writing in a foreign language the better writer you become. Language is spiritual and writing in a new language helps to explore yourself more deeply than before.

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See Megha’s audio poem for Litehouse