Kala Ramesh

Kala Ramesh, the Founder and Director of Triveni Haikai India as well as the Founder and Managing Editor of haikuKATHA Journal, is an anthologist, and an external faculty member of Symbiosis International University Pune, where she has been teaching a 60-hour haikai course since 2012 — a first in India. Her book of tanka and tanka prose The Forest I Know was published by HarperCollins in July 2021. Kala has organised eight haikai conferences in India since 2006. To bring haiku into everyday spaces, she has initiated several projects, notably haikuWALL and haikuDHYANA. She created the ‘Rasika’ form, an eight-verse renku (collaborative linked verses) fashioned after Matsuo Basho’s shofu-style of renku

Kala Ramesh’s awards include:

WE Trailblazer Poet Award, from Women Empowered India (2020)
Second Place: Porad Haiku Award (2020)
First Place: Akita International Haiku Contest (2019, 2013.)
Honourable Mention: Akita International Haiku Contest (2015, 2014.)
Pushcart Prize nomination from Modern Haiku (51.3) for her haibun “On Slippery Ground” (2020)
Shortlisted for the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize for her book: Beyond the Horizon Beyond (2019)
Winner, Snapshot Press Tanka eBook Award: The Unseen Arc (2017)
Winner: Best Anthology, Haiku Society of America Book Award: Naad Anunaad: An Anthology of Contemporary World Haiku(2017)
First Place: Golden Triangle Haiku Contest 2016
Winner An (Cottage) Prize for the haibun: The Blue Jacaranda. Genjuan International Haibun Contest 2012, Japan.
Honourable Mention for Best Book for Children, Haiku Society of America Book Award (2011)
Winner: Heron's Nest Award (2006)

Ebooks:

Her collection of 96 one-line haiku written along with Marlene Mountain tited one-line twos is published as an ebook by Bones, Contemporary Haiku Journal from Denmark (2016)
Winner: Snapshot Press Tanka eBook Award: an unseen arc (2017)


Initiatives:

Conceptualised the TRIVENI Gurukulam Mentorship Program 2021 – where seven mentors (including Kala) guided 50 poets in a 3-month program from March to May 2021.

HAIKU IN HEALING - 26^th June 2021 – a virtual event which saw 32 haikai poets reciting their poems and talking about how haikai heals the heart. 55 poets were the ‘cheer leaders!’

Triveni Haikai India official website launch – 15 August 2021.


In the Indian tradition, Triveni means the confluence of three major rivers: Ganga, Yamuna, and Sarasvati. Here, it signifies India, Japan, and the rest of the world coming together to revel in haikai literature.

TRIVENI Haikai India:
Kala Ramesh’s initiatives over the years culminated in founding INhaiku on 23rd February at the Haiku Utsav 2013. On this occasion, a group of like-minded friends came together to promote, enjoy, and move deeper into the beauty and intricacies of this art form.

In 2016 it morphed into a bigger community of haikai lovers and practitioners and came to be known as TRIVENI. Under the leadership of Kala Ramesh, TRIVENI became an 'activity hub' for all Japanese short forms of poetry and, as a result of increased levels of engagement, the need for a website was felt.

Video links:

Exclusive interview in Failed Haiku

Kali’s Tongue - haikai poems by Kala Ramesh, Inner Soul Films

haikuWALL Live at Haiku Chronicles

'beyond the horizon beyond' by Kala Ramesh
A short film on my book of haiku & haibun.