US Cover of When I Reach for Your Pulse - Artwork by Pranati Panda
Aotearoa New Zealand Cover - Artwork by Matt Arbuckle
“In this unflinching debut, Rushi Vyas intricately untangles personal and familial memories as a lyrical mode of mourning. There is no bracing for the impact of a self-inflicted violence that ends a history of domestic violence [....] Relief, dread, and radical compassion lace these unforgettable accounts. At times fierce and tender, these poems reveal how anti-elegy is essential to the elegiac form.”
“Rushi Vyas’s staggering first collection is an effigy formed by that brightness we know will supplant the day’s dark whether we see it happen or not. This lyric is simultaneously interrogation, mourning, joy [....] I’m thrilled to be invited into these poems where "snow stifles the certain world" and the "season of unknowing" feels most like an emancipation gifted within this ’verse, within these ’verses.”
“Vyas shows us in gem-cut lines and poetic turns how poetry fills that space of grieving and transforms these etching-like traumas into memories for examination. As you read, pay close attention to sound and sense and the intimacies to learn how to hold your fragile selves. This is a guidebook for survival: how to endure when violence attempts to swallow you whole. These are poems I now keep on my prayer shelf.”
Praise for When I Reach for Your Pulse
Ruth Ellen Kocher
Rajiv Mohabir
Diana Khoi Nguyen
Aotearoa New Zealand Review of Books
"Vyas illuminates the impossibility of holding onto what has gone. The attempt to reach one’s dead, even to hold onto a solid memory of them, is as futile as trying to reclaim a dream whose details vanish with every effort to seize them—but it is, as this collection reiterates, a process impossible to forgo."
Kete Books
"Originally from the United States, Vyas’ composes a work in which an instance of traumatic personal loss acts as a starting point to poetically examine and dismantle the private and public impacts of British colonialism, American imperialism, patriarchy and caste hierarchies. The result is a politically charged meditation upon the world we live in and the world we might bequeath to those who come after us."
NZ Book Lovers
"Vyas' talent is undeniable. Their lyrical chops combined with formal innovation make for a stunning collection. The poems cascade down the page in rhythmic lines, accented with vivid imagery. Vyas deftly alternates between crisp narrative and rhapsodic abstraction. Throughout it all, their voice remains intimate and accessible, drawing readers into this journey through darkness toward catharsis. This is poetry as ritual and 'When I Reach for Your Pulse' feels like a ceremony commemorating what has passed as well as what lies ahead. Vyas proves themself a poet to watch."
1964 Magazine
-Liz Breslin
'He examines “the unflinching / thin exoskeleton between rage / and vulnerability” (‘Entomology // Mirage’) through car drives, sports games, wider colonising histories, letters for/after his father. It’s a delicate dance to write about trauma, and Rushi holds his readers gently through the stories of family violence and suicide.
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It’s no wonder this manuscript was twice a finalist for national poetry awards in the United States, and has also been published over there this year. This, from ‘Scaffold’: “Do not make beautiful the noose or its pedestal, the scaffold is almost a catastrophe.”'
Saraid de Silva
"I love Vyas’ poems. They feel to me like sitting very still next to someone guiding me quietly through painful things I’ve tried not to hear. Also worth mentioning is not just Vyas’ poetry, but his analyses of the way he writes them."
Poems and Publications
Selected Online and Anthologized Poems
"Love Story with Rolex" in ÅŒrongohau: Best New Zealand Poems 2023
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"Entomology // Mirage" in Poetry Daily: Poems.com, 2023
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"Midwest Physics: Third Law" in Plume 10 Anthology, 2022
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"Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis" in The Spinoff, 2022
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"Still, Nothing" in Pigeon Pages, 2021
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"Netī Netī" in Redivider Journal, 2020
"Dear Paranoia," and "Post-Funeral: Pilgrimage" in Counterclock, 2020
"Making the Centipede a Perfect Morning" in The Thought Erotic, 2018
"Beads" in Cosmonauts Avenue, 2018
"Postcard from Amritsar" in The Adroit Journal, 2019
"Funeral: Durga Puja" in The Adroit Journal, 2018
3 Poems in Gasher Journal, 2018
"When I Reach for Your Pulse" in The Offing, 2017
3 Poems in Tinderbox Poetry Journal, 2016
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Musical Collaborations
Poems in Album Booklet for Streams by Yuma Uesaka and Marilyn Crispell
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"Three Songs to Poems by Rushi Vyas" Song Cycle for Voice, Cello, Bass Clarinet, and Tanpura by composer Andrew Perkins
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"How Alive You Are" Song Cycle for Voice and Piano by composer Kenneth Young (In-Progress)
Select Honors for WIRFYP
Honoree / 2024 Midland Authors Award (US)
Longlisted / 2024 New Zealand Book Awards
Finalist / 2019 and 2018 National Poetry Series (US)
Runner-Up / 2020 Center for Book Arts Chapbook Contest
Semi-Finalist / 2019 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award
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Reviews/Essays/Interviews
"Reaching a Pulse Point: Melody Nixon Interviews Rushi Vyas" in The Common, March 2024.
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"The PEN Ten: An Interview with Rushi Vyas" in PEN America, April 2023
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"The Person is Not the Body: An Interview with Rushi Vyas" in The Rumpus, February 2023.
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Collaborative Essay on the Collaborative Process in Raga Bhairav with Rajiv Mohabir
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Review of Arrow by Sumita Chakraborty, in GASHER
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Review of The Voice of Sheila Chandra by Kazim Ali, forthcoming in Asian American Literary Review
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Review of Night Sky With Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong, in Timber
Interview with Terrell Jamal Terry, in Timber
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Video/Audio
"Nine poets read from A Clear Dawn" / NZ Poetry Shelf / 2021
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"Episode 140: Rushi Vyas & Rajiv Mohabir" / It's Lit with PhDJ Podcast / 2021
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"Writing, Detachment, & Ritual w/ Rushi Vyas" / Sema Podcast / January 2021
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Reading / Innisfree Poetry Cafe / Boulder, CO / April 2018
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"Doctor" / Solo Performance / Counterpath Press / Denver, CO / March 2018
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"River of Entangled Voices" / with composer Trevor Villwock and poet Marcus Williams / Boulder Chorale / 2016
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Facilitation
Facilitator / Editor / Curriculum Developer
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Facilitator, ÅŒtepoti Writers Lab (2022-Present)
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Tutor (Teaching Assistant), Advanced Creative Writing, English 320, University of Otago (2022)
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Reviews Editor / Poetry Editor, GASHER, (2020-22)
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Assistant Director, Career Services at New York University (2018-19)
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Lead Graduate Instructor in the Department of English-Creative Writing at the University of Colorado-Boulder (2017-18)
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Creative Writing Instructor at the University of Colorado-Boulder (2015-18)
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Designed Psychology seminar with Dr. Richard Mann, Psychology 121-The Meaning of Life and Death (2014-15)
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Career Advisor at the University of Michigan (2011-13)
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Co-Founder and Curriculum Developer at Beyond Bounds (2012-14)
Bio
Rushi Vyas is the author of the poetry collection When I Reach For Your Pulse (Four Way Books and Otago University Press, 2023) which was a two-time finalist for the National Poetry Series in the US, a 2024 Midland Authors Award honoree (US), and long-listed for the 2024 New Zealand Book Awards. He is the co-author of the chapbook Between Us, Not Half a Saint, with Rajiv Mohabir. His poetry, interviews, and reviews have been featured in places such as Tin House, The Offing, The Rumpus, ÅŒrongohau - Best New Zealand Poems 2023, PEN America, The Georgia Review, Adroit Journal, The Spinoff, and elsewhere.
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He is available for consultation on:
-Facilitating writing workshops
-Career counseling for creatives
-Editing poetry manuscripts
Born on the ancestral lands of the Odawa, Seneca, Shawnee, and Wyandotte peoples in Ohio to immigrant parents from western India, he now lives in ÅŒtepoti Dunedin. In addition to poetry, Rushi dedicates his time to counseling and facilitation-based work in one-on-one and group settings. He has worked as a career counsellor, curriculum developer, editor, and instructor of creative writing in university and community-based settings. He has a passion for facilitating individuals and groups in healing from personal, communal, and intergenerational hardships. He recently completed a PhD Dissertation in literature that explores how poets of the South Asian diaspora employ embodied practice to process cultural violence, cultural loss, violence and silence in their writing.
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Upcoming Events
Contact
For Review Copies or Publicity Requests for When I Reach for Your Pulse:
publicity@fourwaybooks.com (US)
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To find me:
Email: rvyas2 [at] gmail [dot] com