Winter Blossoms

Winter Blossoms represents a cross cultural journey that not only explores the experiences of South Asian women, but also reflects all women's connection with everything and everyone around them. From arranged marriages to a mother's delight for her unborn children, Mamata Misra's clear, compassionate voice echoes the bittersweet quality of women's lives. Like her poem "Rollercoaster," she takes us on an adventure filled with the complexities of living and dying. I recommend that readers fasten their seat belts. You're in for one amazing ride.

-K.J. Wilson, Ed.D, author of When Violence Begins at Home: A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding and Ending Domestic Abuse.

Winter Blossoms is a bouquet of poems that would touch every soul. With a voice that is tender and assertive, and clear as a bell, Mamata Misra calls us to interrogate human indignity, hostility, and domination and then she whispers in our ear: 'change, change, change.' She takes us gently by the hand and leads us to hope. Winter Blossoms is courageous and bold, not unlike the buds that dare to bloom in the dead of a freezing season. The truths in Winter Blossoms go beyond the limitations of a particular community and reach the universal.

-Shamita Das Dasgupta, co-founder of Manavi, Inc. and editor of A Patchwork Shawl: Chronicles of South Asian Women in America and Body Evidence: Intimate Violence against South Asian Women in America.