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Uma Parameswaran was born in Madras, grew up in
Jabalpur, India, and has been living in
Winnipeg, Manitoba, since 1966. A Professor of
English at the University of Winnipeg, her
previous books include drama, Rootless but Green
are the Boulevard Trees and Sons Must Die and
Other Plays; poetry, Trishanku and Other
Writings; and criticism, SACLIT: An Introduction
to South Asian Canadian Literature; and fiction,
What was Always Hers and The Sweet Smell of
Mother's Milk-wet Bodice. She is married to a
mathematician and has one daughter.
Sisters at the Well
Sisters at the Well, A collection of poems by
award-winning author Uma Parameswaran, starts
with three powerful poems on the Air India crash
of 1985. As in Trishanku, her earlier
collection, these different voices capture the
experiences of Indo-Canadians, and resonate with
the speakers' diasporic memory and contemporary
realities. Collectively, the poems address
various phases of immigrant experience - from
nostalgia for the land left behind and wonder at
the new environment, through the realities of
racial discrimination, pressures of settlement,
struggle to strike roots, and to the final
affirmation that, "Home is where your feet are,
and may your heart be there too." As one of the
voices says with diasporic fervor, "I shall
bring Ganga to our land, our Assiniboine, and
the flute player shall dance on the waters of La
Salle." The title characterizes the author's
propensity to express Canadian experiences in
Indian images. This collection also includes a
section of earlier poems, and a brief section on
some of her works in progress. |
