Divya Victor

{{Infobox person

| name = Divya Victor

| image = 2020 divya-victor photo-by-h-ensor 0019.webp

| alt = Divya Victor Sitting

| caption = Victor in 2020

| occupation = Poet, Professor

| notable_works = CURB

| awards = {{ubl|PEN America Open Book Award (2021)|Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award (2021)}}

}}

Divya Victor is a Tamil American poet and professor, known for her poetry book Curb which won the PEN Open Book Award.{{cite news |title=PEN America presents literary awards in Manhattan ceremony |access-date=27 May 2022 |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/pen-america-presents-literary-awards-manhattan-ceremony-83169994 |work=ABC News |publisher=ABC News |date=1 March 2022 |language=en}}

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Early life and education

Divya Victor was born in Nagercoil, India.{{Cite web |url=https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3180225.Divya_Victor |title=Divya Victor|website=Goodreads.com|access-date=27 May 2022}}

Victor earned her B.S. in English from Towson University, her M.A. in creative writing (poetry) from Temple University,{{Cite web|url=https://english.msu.edu/faculty/divya-victor/|title=Divya Victor|access-date=27 May 2022 |website=Department of English Michigan State University|date=March 29, 2022 }} and her Ph.D. in English at University at Buffalo (SUNY).

Victor has taught at the University at Buffalo (SUNY) and Nanyang Technological University,{{Cite web |url=http://www.poetry.sg/divya-victor-intro|title=Divya Victor / Intro|website=poetry.sg}} which hosts Singapore's first Advanced Creative Writing Program. She has also served as the editor for Jacket2.{{Cite web |access-date=27 May 2022 |url=https://jacket2.org/category/commentary-tags/divya-victor|title=Divya Victor | Jacket2|website=jacket2.org}} She is currently{{when|date=May 2022}} based in East Lansing and is an associate professor at Michigan State University.{{Cite web |url=https://writing.upenn.edu/wh/calendar/0418.php|title=April 2018|website=Upenn.edu writing|access-date=27 May 2022}}

Awards and recognition

Victor's CURB, won the PEN America Open Book Award{{Cite web|url=https://nightboat.org/curb-by-divya-victor-is-the-winner-of-the-pen-open-book-award/|title=CURB by Divya Victor is the Winner of Two Major Awards!|date=March 1, 2022}} and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cgu.edu/news/2022/03/divya-victors-curb-named-2022-kingsley-tufts-poetry-award-winner|title=Divya Victor's 'Curb' Named 2022 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award Winner ·Claremont Graduate University|date=March 4, 2022

|website=Claremont Graduate University|access-date=27 May 2022}} Her earlier book, Natural Subjects, won the Bob Kaufman Award. In 2012 she won the Mark Diamond Research Fund Award from the University at Buffalo.{{Cite web |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/divya-victor|title=Divya Victor|first=Poetry|last=Foundation|date=May 27, 2022 |website=Poetry Foundation|access-date=27 May 2022}}

She has been a Riverrun Fellow at University of California San Diego's Archive for New Poetry, and a Writer in Residence at the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibit (L.A.C.E.). MoCA Los Angeles, The National Gallery of Singapore, the L.A.C.E. and the MoMA have performed or installed her work.

Critical reception

National Book Critics Circle board member Diego Báez has described Victor as a "globally minded, locally rooted, exceedingly brilliant poet."{{Cite web|url=https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/all//|title=Book Marks reviews of by}} Mandana Chaffa, a National Book Critics Circle Fellow, describes her work as "a powerful political act" that is "yet it is first and foremost a poetic act, one that is not to be missed."{{Cite web|url=https://losangelesreview.org/review-mandana-chaffa/|title=Curb by Divya Victor review by Mandana Chaffa|date=October 12, 2021|access-date=27 May 2022|website=LosAngelesReview.org}} Her book CURB has been described by Cathy Park Hong as "Layered, rich, and epic…incredible collection that must be read and re-read."{{Cite web|url=https://nightboat.org/book/curb/|title=CURB|access-date=27 May 2022|website=Nightboat.org}} Don Mee Choi called it "innovative…a powerful spell against empire's geography."{{cite book |access-date=27 May 2022 |title=Curb |url=https://bookshop.org/books/curb/9781643620701|website=Bookshop.org|date=April 27, 2021 |isbn=978-1-64362-070-1 |last1=Victor |first1=Divya |publisher=Nightboat Books }} Pen America's judges citation for the PEN Open Book Award describes Curb as "a remarkable book of poetry…a stunning historical document" and "brilliantly inventive."{{Cite web|url=https://pen.org/literary-awards/the-2022-pen-america-literary-awards-winners/|title=Announcing the 2022 PEN America Literary Awards Winners|date=February 28, 2022|access-date=27 May 2022}}

Amitava Kumar, the Indian writer and journalist, has remarked that Victor's Kith describes "so well our locked destinies and, at the same time, perhaps because of their wit, or vitality, or compassion, deliver us into liberated zones of heightened consciousness."{{Cite web |url=https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9781934200575/kith.aspx |title=Kith|website=SPDBooks.org |access-date=27 May 2022}}

Select bibliography

= Books =

Curb, Nightboat Books. 2021.
Kith, Fence Books.{{Cite web|url=https://fenceportal.org/|title=Fence, an independent literary press|website=fenceportal.org}} 2017.
Unsub, Insert Blanc. Los Angeles. 2015.
Natural Subjects, Trembling Pillow. 2014.
Things to Do with Your Mouth, Les Figues 2013.

= Chapbooks and other short-form publications =

Scheingleichheit (German edition). :de:Merve Verlag. 2020.
Semblance (English edition). Sputnik and Fizzle Book. 2016.
Reconfiliating: Conversations with Conceptual-Affiliated Writers. With an Afterword by Joseph Mosconi. Essay Press. 2015.
Swift Taxidermies 1919-1922, Gauss PDF. 2014.
Say Hello to Your Last Chapbook, with Mathias Svalina, New Lights Press. 2014.
Partial Derivative of the Unnamable, Troll Thread. 2012.
Goodbye, John! On John Baldessari, Gauss PDF. 2012.
Punch, Gauss PDF. 2011.
Partial Dictionary of the Unnamable, Troll Thread. 2011.
Partial Directory of the Unnamable, Troll Thread. 2011.
Hellocasts by Charles Reznikoff by Divya Victor by Vanessa Place, Ood Press. 2010.
Sutures, Little Red Leaves. 2009.