A Short Interview of Anjum Hasan (Novelist, Short Story Writer, Poet, and Editor)
Anjum Hasan is an Indian novelist, short story writer, poet, and books editor. She was born in Shillong, Meghalaya, and currently lives in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Her works include poetry collection Street on the Hill which won her Sahitya Akademi Award in 2006 (Source: https://www.lit-across-frontiers.org/profiles/anjum-hasan).
How do you personally define poetry, has this form's understanding changed over time for you?
That idea of a man speaking to men (and women) is probably seen as outdated now but it still holds for me. Something that gets at human essence by giving you a sudden, surprising and yet recognisable vision of life. This is what one wants from poetry, though these days it’s often trite confessionals. We’re sounding similar yet, in seeming to talk only about ourselves, drifting further from each other – the paradox of the present age.
Do the creative processes of writing a novel and composing poetry ever bleed into one another, or do they remain distinct?
The sensibilities are the same but the forms are different. With poetry, the lyric form in my hands tended to enforce sometimes too much of a personal inwardness. In fiction, I can give more space to other people. I can’t naturally write the kind of social novels that come easily to Indian writers from more rooted backgrounds. So other people are the mystery my novels want to solve.
What role does detachment play in your writing process? A review on Street on the Hill praised your dual role as inhabitant and observer. How does one play/balance both?
In many of the poems in Street on a Hill, I was trying to find a language in which to write about Shillong as both landscape and society. I find the fly on the wall, detached observer role comes naturally to me. It’s partly the result of my history, have lived all my life in cities where I’m something of a lurker and outsider. The outsiderness natural to every writer is just an extension of that.
How do you view your role as a poet? How does that role remain relevant in our turbulent time?
I write much less poetry than I used to but I still read it. Poetry has always been at an angle to what are seen as mainstream concerns, but lately it’s been pushed even further to the sidelines. It’s unthinkable that a poet today would command the kind of national respect that, say, Tagore did. What remains then are figures who have stuck to their guns, maintained a poetic integrity, and made a quiet pact with being sidelined. That honesty is more than relevant, it’s crucial. I’m thinking of contemporary poets as different as Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Robin Ngangom, and Vijay Nambisan.
How do you decide that a specific observation or idea belongs in a poem rather than in a different literary form?
I don’t think the forms are more important than what one is actually saying.
How does the city (Shillong & Bangalore) influence your poetic work compared to your prose?
In the poetry there was a sense of the city as taken for granted, even if partly hidden. You’re not explaining things but trying to evoke them. With prose, one can get more explanatory and – like I said above – be drawn more to other people. I’m right now finishing a non-fiction book on Shillong that features the voices of some of its residents and has a lot of its older as well as more recent history.
Which poets do you find yourself returning to for inspiration when you question your place and practice as a poet?
I’ve named three poets above who I respect. But I’m also returning now to some of the older poets I read when I was younger, especially visionaries such as Adam Zagajewski. Look up his poem “Self Portrait”, it’s a model for how a poet might write a personal history in a nutshell.
Note: This interview was conducted by Anugrah Smitha Reghu via Gmail on February 27, 2026.
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