Bhanu Kapil writes poetry and prose that investigates the boundaries of the body, identity, and narrative. Her work is characterized by an experimental style and a deep engagement with themes such as trauma, migration, and cultural belonging. Kapil often pursues formal innovation, blending different genres and narrative voices to create unique and compelling reading experiences. Her prose is often lyrical and introspective, exploring inner landscapes and the complexities of the human experience.
Originally published in America in 2006, Incubation: a space for monsters is a formally innovative, hybrid-genre book that incorporates poetry and prose. Set in a shifting narrative environment, where human bodies, characters, and text are neither one thing nor another, this fragmentary-diaristic text journeys through the spaces in-between.
A fragmented notebook investigates mental illness and trauma in the South Asian diaspora
An evocative exploration of body and politics by one of our most exciting innovative writers. Bhanu Kapil's Ban en Banlieue follows a brown (black) girl as she walks home from school in the first moments of a riot. An April night in London, in 1979, is the axis of this startling work of overlapping arcs and varying approaches. By the end of the night, Ban moves into an incarnate and untethered presence, becoming all matter-- soot, meat, diesel oil and force--as she loops the city with the energy of global weather. Derived from performances in India, England and throughout the U.S., Ban en Banlieue is written at the limit of somatic and civic aims.
Always at the centre of her books and performances are the experiences of the body, and, whether she is exploring racism, violence, the experiences of diaspora communities in India, England or America, what emerges is a heart- stopping, life-affirming way of telling the near impossible-to-be-told.