The Self is an Ocean

“The Self is an Ocean" is at once a striking and gentle confessional collection, one which explores trauma, love, nature, spirits, queerness, healing, and Tamizh identity without ever unbraiding one from the other, thus essentializing their unity. The scenes we enter through each poem are visceral; bursting with color, shape, touch, scent, music, and light, even as we approach spirits, death, loss, and phantoms.” - Devaki D. Devi, author of Earth & Earth-like Planets (Abode Press)

"The Self is an Ocean is a manuscript about coming-of-age, Tamizh diasporic womanhood, and survivorship. Tracing a writer’s relationship to both craft and family, these poems move from trauma to resilience, from self-concept defined by one’s abuser to self-definition and reclamation. Weaving in and out of several core themes, the collection balances specificity of experience with emotional clarity, speaking to anger, grief, and the search for lineage and belonging. The ending feels like a new beginning—a hopeful turn toward survivorship and the work of being an artist." - Rayne Alarcio, author of Starving the Wolf (Bottlecap Press)