You ask me what I mean
by saying I have lost my tongue.
I ask you, what would you do
if you had two tongues in your mouth,
and lost he first one, the mother tongue,
and could not really know the other,
the foreign tongue.
    
from 'Search for my Tongue'

A NEW 2008 EDITION OF SUJATA BHATT'S CELEBRATED 1988 FIRST COLLECTION

'Brunizem' is a dark prairie soil found in Asia, Europe and North America, the three worlds of Sujata Bhatt's imagination. Born in India, her mother tongue Gujarati, Bhatt was educated in the United States and now lives in Germany. In Brunizem, her acclaimed first collection, she explores the richness and the conflicts of moving between cultures and languages, in poems that are passionate, direct and eloquent. Brunizem was awarded the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Asia) and the Alice Hunt Bartlett Award. In 1994 'Search for My Tongue' was choreographed by Daksha Sheth and performed by the UK-based South Asian Dance Youth Company in nine cities in England and Scotland, under the title 'Tongues Untied'.


'An exciting first collection, moving and invigorating.'
Poetry Review

'One of the finest poets alive.'
New Statesman

'A thoughtful, persuasive and evocative writer.'
Mslexia