Usha Akella / matwaala.com

Indian-American poet Usha Akella published three new books this year, with projects ranging from a Romanian poetry collaboration to a major English-language editing project.

The books include Ants and Lotus, co-authored with prominent Romanian poet and scholar Ruxandra Cesereanu; the 2026 updated English edition of Shri Sai Satcharita, edited with Y. Sai Prasad; and I Thought a Thought, a poem accompanied by illustrations by Kolkata-based artist Sufia Khatoon.

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Akella, who was raised in Hyderabad and is based in Austin, is scheduled to read in Romania and Uzbekistan in September. She is also expected to attend a literary festival in Cluj for the release of the Romanian edition of Ants and Lotus.

Published by Kelsay Books in March 2026, Ants and Lotus brings together poems by Akella and Cesereanu written between 2019 and 2022. The collection is an epistolary exchange between a Romanian and an Indo-American poet.

The collaboration dates to 2019, when Akella traveled to Bucharest for an international poetry festival and met Cesereanu. Akella gifted her a copy of her poetry collection The Rosary of Latitudes, beginning a friendship that developed into an exchange of poetry.

The poems were written against the backdrop of major events including the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The collection moves between personal and political subjects, including loss, patriarchy, postcolonial geopolitics, religion, freedom and grief.

Its structure evokes jugalbandi, an Indian classical music format in which two performers engage in a collaborative exchange. The book's material describes the collection as a "unique triumph of friendship, dialogue, and an ultimate belief in the magic of poetry."

The collection carries blurbs from writers including Andrei Codrescu, Basudhara Roy, Sukrita Paul Kumar and Magda Cârneci. Codrescu wrote that the poems by Akella and Cesereanu "harmonize and become a unique song in two voices."

Cesereanu is a Romanian poet, novelist and literary critic and a professor in the Department of Comparative Literature at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj. Her work has been translated into English, Italian, Hungarian, German and French, among other languages.

Akella's second book is the 2026 updated English edition of Shri Sai Satcharita, the result of a four-and-a-half-year editorial collaboration with Y. Sai Prasad.

The original Shri Sai Satcharita was written by Hemadpant, or Shri Annasaheb Dabholkar, in 1930. It was translated, abridged and adapted into English by Shri N.V. Gunaji in 1944. The new edition retains Gunaji's English adaptation while seeking to bring the narration closer to Hemadpant's original text.

The updated edition includes chapters arranged in a saptaha parayana format, titles for each chapter, detailed chapter summaries, explanatory footnotes, a notes section and an extensive glossary. It also includes a new translation of the aarati, a history of the English Satcharita, a bibliography and biographies of the 2026 editors.

The book also contains indexes covering restored text from earlier English editions, present-day English translations, textual comparisons of yearly editions, chapter numbering and Sai Baba's devotees. The editors have also smoothed dense language, removed unnecessary capitalization and focused on readability and organization.

The editors are distributing the books free of charge to devotees as a seva project, with recipients asked to cover only courier or mailing costs. The information provided by Akella says 525 copies were distributed within a month of printing.

The third publication, I Thought a Thought, pairs a poem by Akella with 16 illustrations by Kolkata-based artist Sufia Khatoon.

The book was published with grants from the thinkIndia Foundation in Dallas and the Agni Foundation for the Arts in Austin. It carries blurbs from poet Tishani Doshi and Shri Anish.

The poem follows a chain of thoughts that transforms into different images, including "a river," "a jellyfish," "a venomous volcano" and "a soaring kite."

The book explores the idea of consciousness as the ground on which phenomena unfold. Its accompanying material describes the poem and illustrations as a response to a fragmented world, with a focus on harmony and evolution. Khatoon's statement discusses how a single thought can generate a chain of thoughts and connect with collective human consciousness.

Akella has authored 12 books of poetry and plays and has been published by publishers including Sahitya Akademi in India and Spinifex Press in Australia. She holds three master's degrees, including an MSt in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge, which she completed in 2018.

Her poems have appeared in approximately 150 journals and anthologies, and she has participated in international poetry festivals in Romania, Macedonia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Mexico, India, Colombia and Nicaragua. Her work has also been translated into Romanian, Macedonian and Spanish.

Akella founded Matwaala, a platform focused on increasing the visibility of South Asian diaspora poets in the United States. She is also a co-host of The POV and has worked on literary editing projects, including Hum Aisecih Bolte! This is just how we speak, an anthology on Hyderabad, and a festschrift on poet Keki N. Daruwalla published by Sahitya Akademi.

Akella was a finalist for Austin's poet laureate position in 2025.

Discover more at New India Abroad.