Vidyan Ravinthiran was born in Leeds, to Sri Lankan Tamils. His first book of poems, Grun-tu-molani (Bloodaxe Books, 2014), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Prize and the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize. His second, The Million-petalled Flower of Being Here (Bloodaxe Books, 2019), won a Northern Writers' Award and was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. It was shortlisted for the 2019 Forward Prize for Best Collection, the 2019 T.S. Eliot Prize and the 2021 Ledbury Munthe Poetry Prize for Second Collections. His third collection, Avidya, is published by Bloodaxe in 2025. Vidyan Ravinthiran is co-editor with Seni Seneviratne and Shash Trevett of the anthology Out of Sri Lanka (Bloodaxe Books, 2023), a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. After teaching at the universities of Cambridge, Durham and Birmingham in the UK, he now teaches at Harvard in the US. He is the author of Elizabeth Bishop's Prosaic (Bucknell, 2015), winner of both the University English Prize and the Warren-Brooks Award for Outstanding Literary Criticism; a collection of essays, Worlds Woven Together (Columbia University Press, 2022); a critical study, Spontaneity and Form in Modern Prose (OUP, 2020); and Asian/Other: Life, Poems, and the Problem of Memoir, a fusion of poetry criticism and memoir (W.W. Norton, US; Icon Books, UK, 2025).

• 9 As a10 Your demon’s basic12 Next time14 Trinco16 Nanthikadal17 Burnt palmyra18 Leaving Jaffna19 May 202120 The elephant22 The elephant23 Trinco24 A fisherman25 The last train26 The Annupoorunyamal27 My mother’s English28 Every year30 Pillaiyar32 Lasantha Wickrematunge38 Autumn40 Mourning42 Sri Lanka44 Rama’s bridge45 Karna57 My face59 Hillside temple60 Orts64 Travellers65 Eelam66 Research68 Jaffna, January 15, 202370 The Star of India71 As a child

To commit an entire collection to the sonnet is a brave act. It shows not just trust in one's abilities but also a humility before the form that any kind of success demands. Few have achieved this in many years but The Million-petalled Flower of Being Here offers an object lesson in finding the scope of the modern sonnet, and using it to record the beauty, sadness, and complexity of the everyday.

Vidyan Ravinthiran was born in Leeds, to Sri Lankan Tamils. His first book of poems, Grun-tu-molani (Bloodaxe Books, 2014), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Prize and the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize. His second, The Million-petalled Flower of Being Here (Bloodaxe Books, 2019), won a Northern Writers' Award and was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. It was shortlisted for the 2019 Forward Prize for Best Collection, the 2019 T.S. Eliot Prize and the 2021 Ledbury Munthe Poetry Prize for Second Collections. His third collection, Avidya, is published by Bloodaxe in 2025. Vidyan Ravinthiran is co-editor with Seni Seneviratne and Shash Trevett of the anthology Out of Sri Lanka (Bloodaxe Books, 2023), a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. After teaching at the universities of Cambridge, Durham and Birmingham in the UK, he now teaches at Harvard in the US. He is the author of Elizabeth Bishop's Prosaic (Bucknell, 2015), winner of both the University English Prize and the Warren-Brooks Award for Outstanding Literary Criticism; a collection of essays, Worlds Woven Together (Columbia University Press, 2022); a critical study, Spontaneity and Form in Modern Prose (OUP, 2020); and Asian/Other: Life, Poems, and the Problem of Memoir, a fusion of poetry criticism and memoir (W.W. Norton, US; Icon Books, UK, 2025).

• 9 As a10 Your demon’s basic12 Next time14 Trinco16 Nanthikadal17 Burnt palmyra18 Leaving Jaffna19 May 202120 The elephant22 The elephant23 Trinco24 A fisherman25 The last train26 The Annupoorunyamal27 My mother’s English28 Every year30 Pillaiyar32 Lasantha Wickrematunge38 Autumn40 Mourning42 Sri Lanka44 Rama’s bridge45 Karna57 My face59 Hillside temple60 Orts64 Travellers65 Eelam66 Research68 Jaffna, January 15, 202370 The Star of India71 As a child

To commit an entire collection to the sonnet is a brave act. It shows not just trust in one's abilities but also a humility before the form that any kind of success demands. Few have achieved this in many years but The Million-petalled Flower of Being Here offers an object lesson in finding the scope of the modern sonnet, and using it to record the beauty, sadness, and complexity of the everyday.

Vidyan Ravinthiran was born in Leeds, to Sri Lankan Tamils. His first book of poems, Grun-tu-molani (Bloodaxe Books, 2014), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Prize and the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize. His second, The Million-petalled Flower of Being Here (Bloodaxe Books, 2019), won a Northern Writers' Award and was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. It was shortlisted for the 2019 Forward Prize for Best Collection, the 2019 T.S. Eliot Prize and the 2021 Ledbury Munthe Poetry Prize for Second Collections. His third collection, Avidya, is published by Bloodaxe in 2025. Vidyan Ravinthiran is co-editor with Seni Seneviratne and Shash Trevett of the anthology Out of Sri Lanka (Bloodaxe Books, 2023), a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. After teaching at the universities of Cambridge, Durham and Birmingham in the UK, he now teaches at Harvard in the US. He is the author of Elizabeth Bishop's Prosaic (Bucknell, 2015), winner of both the University English Prize and the Warren-Brooks Award for Outstanding Literary Criticism; a collection of essays, Worlds Woven Together (Columbia University Press, 2022); a critical study, Spontaneity and Form in Modern Prose (OUP, 2020); and Asian/Other: Life, Poems, and the Problem of Memoir, a fusion of poetry criticism and memoir (W.W. Norton, US; Icon Books, UK, 2025).

• 9 As a10 Your demon’s basic12 Next time14 Trinco16 Nanthikadal17 Burnt palmyra18 Leaving Jaffna19 May 202120 The elephant22 The elephant23 Trinco24 A fisherman25 The last train26 The Annupoorunyamal27 My mother’s English28 Every year30 Pillaiyar32 Lasantha Wickrematunge38 Autumn40 Mourning42 Sri Lanka44 Rama’s bridge45 Karna57 My face59 Hillside temple60 Orts64 Travellers65 Eelam66 Research68 Jaffna, January 15, 202370 The Star of India71 As a child

To commit an entire collection to the sonnet is a brave act. It shows not just trust in one's abilities but also a humility before the form that any kind of success demands. Few have achieved this in many years but The Million-petalled Flower of Being Here offers an object lesson in finding the scope of the modern sonnet, and using it to record the beauty, sadness, and complexity of the everyday.