Join the Kundiman South Regional Group for a free, virtual group reading to celebrate Gauri Awasthi’s debut poetry collection, Mother Wound (Trio House Press). This event will feature readings by Gauri Awasthi, Esther Lin, Ibrahim Badra, and Prashant Pundir, and will include a brief Q&A. In addition, the reading will help raise funds for a children’s organization in Gaza, as readers have generously opted to donate their honoraria.
This free event will take place via Zoom on Sunday, October 11th, 2026, from 10:00–11:00 AM ET (7:30 PM India Standard Time). Register here.
About the Readers:
Gauri Awasthi: born in Kanpur, India, is a poet, filmmaker and the author of Mother Wound (Trio House Press, October 2026). She has won fellowships from Yaddo, Hambidge Center, Hedgebrook, Djerassi, and Sundress Academy For The Arts. The interviews editor at The Offing, she co-organizes the River Reading Series, which focuses on community-curation at Unnameable Books in Brooklyn. Her research and creative writing pedagogy are focused on the Global Anglophobe and Ecopoetics. She lives in New York City.
Esther Lin: was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and lived in the United States as an undocumented immigrant for 21 years. She is the author of Cold Thief Place, winner of the 2026 Norma Farber First Book Award and longlisted for the 2025 National Book Award and 2026 PEN Open Book Award. She is also the co-editor of Here to Stay: Poetry and Prose from the Undocumented Diaspora (HarperCollins 2024). She won a Pushcart in 2024, and has been a Writing Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, and Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. Currently she co-organizes the Undocupoets, which promotes the work of undocumented poets and raises consciousness about the structural barriers that they face in the literary community.
Ibrahim Badra: is a journalist, translator, writer, and human rights activist from Gaza. He is 24 years old and has survived seven wars and the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Born in the Sabra neighborhood, his family was displaced from Jaffa in 1948. He holds a degree in English Literature and Translation from the Islamic University of Gaza. He lives in Lille and his work focuses on documenting lived realities, amplifying Palestinian voices, and advocating for human rights in the face of conflict and displacement.
Prashant Pundir: is a political activist and published poet based in Mumbai, India. His work focuses on anti-fascist organising, Palestine, anti-caste justice and Trans Queer rights. He has been published in The New Arab and The Polis Project.