More About this Book
All over the world, girls and women are victims of violence, oppression, and discrimination. No country, no community, no religious or ethnic group is immune. Too often, women’s voices are stifled, ignored, or trivialized — and as a result, other victims of abuse feel alone and unsupported.
A Unique and Important Anthology
As part of the global effort to combat gender-based victimization, Kasva Press is proud to publish Veils, Halos & Shackles, the first-ever anthology of international poetry specifically addressing the oppression and empowerment of women. Veils, Halos & Shackles includes 249 poems by poets from dozens of countries — from Brazil to Bangladesh, from New Zealand to Nigeria. Many of the contributors are among the world’s most accomplished living poets.
These diverse, impeccably crafted poems tell us that Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, Ireland, India, Israel, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, the US, the UK, and other countries are not so dissimilar where the oppression of women is concerned. Many of the contributors to Veils, Halos & Shackles are survivors of rape and other crimes that affect women and girls every day; others are grandmothers, mothers, daughters, friends, and teachers of victims and survivors. Still others write out of empathy and concern, having been moved deeply by the fate of human beings who just happen to be female.
Words can kill…. But words can also heal.
The December 2012 rape and murder of Jyoti Singh Pandey in Delhi moved thousands of people to pour into the streets in protest. Veils, Halos & Shackles:
In editing Veils, Halos & Shackles, our focus has been on finding poems that tell the truth about the violence & oppression women are subjected to in our time — poems that move individuals & that may even have the power to affect governments — poems that ask us to protect & nurture women through intelligent laws & the transformation of cultures.
— Charles Adès Fishman & Smita Sahay
In addition to extraordinary poems, Veils, Halos & Shackles includes testimony by the poets explaining what moved them to address this subject in their work. We at Kasva Press believe that this volume will be an essential and timely contribution to the cause of women’s empowerment and freedom, speaking to a global audience and giving a voice to the millions whose outcries have been silenced.
Please contact us at info@kasvapress.com for international orders or larger quantities. Veils, Halos & Shackles is available to bookstores and other “trade” outlets through Small Press Distribution.
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Further Information
Kasva –
“…this anthology needs to be in the curriculum of colleges and universities, law enforcement academies, and women’s shelters around the world. Wherever injustice, crimes of barbaric violence, or bestial cruelty occur, this anthology should be mandatory reading. I couldn’t simply read it for review. The memories and experiences inside were shared so beautifully, ferociously, intensely that I had to savor every word…This anthology is not for the faint of heart. And yet, it is a book of hope and courage that has the power to bring out the best in all of us. These are powerful words by some of the best living writers and poets today. Veils, Halos & Shackles is a significant book of literary, cultural, and social excellence and highly recommended to mature readers everywhere.”
–Laurel Johnson, Midwest Book Review Bookwatch
Kasva –
“…this anthology needs to be in the curriculum of colleges and universities, law enforcement academies, and women’s shelters around the world. Wherever injustice, crimes of barbaric violence, or bestial cruelty occur, this anthology should be mandatory reading. I couldn’t simply read it for review. The memories and experiences inside were shared so beautifully, ferociously, intensely that I had to savor every word…This anthology is not for the faint of heart. And yet, it is a book of hope and courage that has the power to bring out the best in all of us. These are powerful words by some of the best living writers and poets today. Veils, Halos & Shackles is a significant book of literary, cultural, and social excellence and highly recommended to mature readers everywhere.”
―Laurel Johnson, Midwest Book Review Bookwatch
Kasva –
“Most of the poems deal with responses to terrible violence. But there are also poems of strength and resilience. In some poems, women swallow the power of goddesses, demand to be seen, and are preserved. Some poems explore subtle, sinister violence that occurs stealthily inside homes and other places that are supposed to be safe…each line, each stanza, each poem gets trapped under your skin. The words on the page lodge inside your mind, raising relentless questions of why and how such violence can even occur. But this is an anthology that should be read and reread to spread the word that such violence does not and should not have a place in this world.”
—Fehmida Zakeer, Bitch Media
Kasva –
“The poems, with tones ranging from painful to cynical―to occasional dry wit―do not preach, reduce or generalise. They exhibit an eclectic range of experience and thought, each specified by religion, region, time and culturally precise natures of patriarchy, making a subliminal argument that while gender injustice is a global and historical phenomenon, its experience is local and specific…The poems are graphic and painful: they grab by the throat, they resurrect demons, but they also redeem with the power of the word.”
―Maithreyi Karnoor, The Hindu