# Zodiac

- Link: https://writersworkshopindia.com/2022/02/07/zodiac/
- Published: 2022-02-07T21:23:26+00:00
- Author: shuktara

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**Author:** Deepa Kylasam Iyer[⌊A sample cover of the book: red coloured handloom sari with gold embossed nameplate and lettering for the title and author's name. The border of the sari lines the right hand margin of the cover.⌉](https://writersworkshopindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Zodiac-scaled-1.jpeg)
**
Pages:** 148 **Year of Publication:** 2021 **Price:** Rs 450 **ISBN:** 978-81-953583-
9-7 (9788195358397)

_**About the Author**_
 Deepa Kylasam Iyer studied in National Law School of India
University, Bangalore, and Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge, as
a Cambridge Trust-Commonwealth Shared Scholar. Her first book of poetry, _Turning
Thirty & Other Poems _was published by Authors Press, New Delhi, in 2016. Her poetry
and short stories have featured in journals like _Indian Literature, Cyclamens &
Swords, Muse India, Auto Didact, Reading Hour,_ and in four anthologies: _Inspired
by Museum_ (British Council, 2015), _Inspired by Tagore_ (British Council, 2012),
_Voices Israel_ (2012) and _Ars Et Mundus_ (Cambridge, 2018). Her play _Metaphor_
was longlisted for the Hindu MetroPlus Playwright Award 2012 and Toto Funds the 
Arts Prize 2013.

_**About the Book**_
 In her preface, Deepa writes:

‘The word “zodiac” comes from a word in ancient Greek that means a “circle of animals”.
By wanting to name this book _Zodiac_, I originally meant the menagerie of animals.
As I began writing, I realized that I could not avoid the portent of star signs.
The result is this book about the space-time of a year through the four seasons 
and all zodiac signs, about love and loss, and the memory of love and loss. Incidentally,
this book is also about animals as themselves, and as metaphor for other beings.

If you have read my first book of poetry, _Turning Thirty & Other Poems_, you would
know that my poems are rooted in places as much as in people. So is this second 
book. The poems are situated in Cambridge, Windsor, London, Pondicherry and Kerala.
Sometimes, there are indeterminate places from memory that suspiciously resemble
these places I have listed.’

A sample poem is given below.

_Zodiac_
 [To Francis Kuriakose]

Each of the million stars
 Is to precisely know The incremental degree Of proximity
To grow into the galaxy And belong.

Each unmelted glacier
 Will show The invisible heat That unsettles Mountains of 
snow Into weeping rivers And song.

_**Contents**_
 98 poems spread across 5 sections