Some Poems For My Sex
Poet Usha Akella talks about poems as bridges into worlds, bridges that help to soften borders - and there is nothing we need more at this moment - than a softening of the criss-crossing lines that cut us off from one another. Borders are hardening, honest and patient dialogue is becoming rare, and meeting each other halfway seems more and more difficult - but a poet’s words can offer a bypass, a more direct path from one human heart to another.
Acclaimed poet and author of 11 books, Usha has contributed to over 150 literary anthologies and journals, and is the founder and director of Matwaala, a South Asian diaspora poets’ collective launched in 2015.
Usha's poetry is full of very real world matters and it does not shy away from confronting the ironies and contradictions of living life as a woman on this planet - no matter our cultural belonging. With her x-ray honesty and masterful craft, she writes from the raw emotions of her own life experiences as well as a soaring bird's eye view.
In this episode Usha reads several poems from her book I Will Not Bear You Sons, and shares the stories behind the poems as well as the clash of cultural forces that shaped her as a woman and as a poet. We also talk about the firestorm that erupted around the book in India, the different forms of patriarchal control women endure, Usha's own refusal to be silenced, the cost of writing feminist poetry, and finding sisterhood with fellow women’s writers.
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Matwaala South Asian Diaspora Poets’ Collective
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Usha Akella
Poet, Author & Founder of Matwaala
Usha Akella has authored eleven books, among them books of poetry Ants and Lotus (Kelsay Books 2026), Embayed (Dancing Girl Press 2025), and I Will Not Bear You Sons (Spinifex Press 2021), musical dramas the 2012 Ek, an English musical on the life of Shirdi Sai Baba produced in Austin and Houston, and a play on Mirabai The Way of the Storm in 2024. She was a finalist for Austin’s Poet Laureate in 2025. Three of her books are translated into Spanish, Romanian and Macedonian, and her poems have been translated into Turkish, Telugu, French, Hindi and more. She holds a Masters of Studies in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge, UK. She was selected as a Creative Ambassador for the City of Austin in 2019 & 2015.
Usha has been published in close to 150 literary anthologies and journals. She has featured at international poetry festivals in Romania, Canada, Slovakia, Nicaragua, Macedonia, Colombia, Slovenia, New York City, Hyderabad, and has won literary prizes such as the Poetry Society of India 2019 Commendation prize, Nazim Hikmet Award, Open Road Review Prize, Egan Memorial Prize. Her travel writings and nonfiction narratives have appeared in Parabola, Swagat, The Hindu, Amore, The Statesman (Kolkata), India Currents and more.
Usha is also the founder and director of Matwaala (www.matwaala.com) a South Asian diaspora poets’ collective launched in 2015. Highly regarded for its spirit of kinship, community and dialogue, Matwaala has collaborated with the Academy of American Poets, been featured in Poets and Writers, and won acclaim for its ar… Read More