Megha Sood
Megha Sood( She/Her) is an award-winning Asian-American author, poet, editor, curator, and literary activist from New Jersey. A Literary Partner with “Life in Quarantine”, at Stanford University. She has received fellowships and support from the National League of American Pen Women, VONA, Kundiman, Dodge Foundation, Pen Women, and Martha Vineyard Creative Writing Institute. Her literary partnership, “Life in Quarantine,” with Stanford University, was presented at the Open Education Global Forum 2020 and received mention in the Stanford Daily newspaper.
Author of four poetry collections including Chapbook( “A Potpourri of Emotions”, Local Gems Press, NY, 2020), Chapbook ( “My Body is Not an Apology”, Finishing Line Press, 2021), award-winning collection (“My Body Lives Like a Threat”, FlowerSongPress, 2022) and (“ Language of the Wound is Love, FlowerSong Press, 2025). Her debut full-length has been a winner of The BookFest Award, Finalist in the NY Book Festival, American Book Awards, Indie Excellence Award, and Semi-Finalist for the Housatonic Book Award by the Connecticut MFA Program.
Also Co-edited award-winning anthologies ( “The Medusa Project”, Mookychick, UK),(“The Kali Project, Indie Blu(e) Press, USA Finalist in India Excellence Awards 2021). Co-edited (“The Brownstone Poets Annual Anthology, NY) for three years 2022-24, Her works have been nominated numerous times for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.
Recipient of “Certificate of Excellence” from Mayor Stephen Fulop, Jersey City. Member of National League of American Pen Women (NLAPW), The Artists Forum (USA), Advisory Committee of ArtPride (NJ), and United Nations Association-US Chapter. She was also featured in the coveted 2022 Indo-American Arts Council Literary Festival. She was recently inducted as an honored listee for the 125-year-old Marquis Who's Who sharing space with global luminaries such as Barack Obama, Malala Yusafzai, Warren Buffett, and many more.
Her awards include a 2020 National Level Winner for the Poetry Matters Project a Four-Time State Level Winner for the NAMI NJ Dara Axelrod Poetry Award, Winner of the Broadside Poetry Festival at the San Gabriel Poetry Festival. For a complete list of awards/prizes/honorable mentions please visit: https://meghasworldsite.wordpress.com/awards-prizes-honorable-mentions/
Her widely anthologized poems, essays, and other works discuss her experience as a first-generation immigrant and woman of color. Her 900+ works have been widely featured in print, online journals, public exhibits, and anthologies including the Poetry Society of New York, MS Magazine, NYPL, Pen Magazine by American Pen Women, Journal of NJ Poets, Dime Show Review, Panoplyzine, PBS American Portrait, NPR, WNYC Studio, etc and various US universities like Howard University, John Hopkins, Temple University, George Mason University, Stanford University, etc.
Her co-edited anthology “The Medusa Project” and other works have been selected to be sent to the moon in 2025 as part of the three separate rocket missions for the historical LunarCodex Project in collaboration with NASA/SpaceX. Find her at https://linktr.ee/meghasood.
Author of four poetry collections including Chapbook( “A Potpourri of Emotions”, Local Gems Press, NY, 2020), Chapbook ( “My Body is Not an Apology”, Finishing Line Press, 2021), award-winning collection (“My Body Lives Like a Threat”, FlowerSongPress, 2022) and (“ Language of the Wound is Love, FlowerSong Press, 2025). Her debut full-length has been a winner of The BookFest Award, Finalist in the NY Book Festival, American Book Awards, Indie Excellence Award, and Semi-Finalist for the Housatonic Book Award by the Connecticut MFA Program.
Also Co-edited award-winning anthologies ( “The Medusa Project”, Mookychick, UK),(“The Kali Project, Indie Blu(e) Press, USA Finalist in India Excellence Awards 2021). Co-edited (“The Brownstone Poets Annual Anthology, NY) for three years 2022-24, Her works have been nominated numerous times for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.
Recipient of “Certificate of Excellence” from Mayor Stephen Fulop, Jersey City. Member of National League of American Pen Women (NLAPW), The Artists Forum (USA), Advisory Committee of ArtPride (NJ), and United Nations Association-US Chapter. She was also featured in the coveted 2022 Indo-American Arts Council Literary Festival. She was recently inducted as an honored listee for the 125-year-old Marquis Who's Who sharing space with global luminaries such as Barack Obama, Malala Yusafzai, Warren Buffett, and many more.
Her awards include a 2020 National Level Winner for the Poetry Matters Project a Four-Time State Level Winner for the NAMI NJ Dara Axelrod Poetry Award, Winner of the Broadside Poetry Festival at the San Gabriel Poetry Festival. For a complete list of awards/prizes/honorable mentions please visit: https://meghasworldsite.wordpress.com/awards-prizes-honorable-mentions/
Her widely anthologized poems, essays, and other works discuss her experience as a first-generation immigrant and woman of color. Her 900+ works have been widely featured in print, online journals, public exhibits, and anthologies including the Poetry Society of New York, MS Magazine, NYPL, Pen Magazine by American Pen Women, Journal of NJ Poets, Dime Show Review, Panoplyzine, PBS American Portrait, NPR, WNYC Studio, etc and various US universities like Howard University, John Hopkins, Temple University, George Mason University, Stanford University, etc.
Her co-edited anthology “The Medusa Project” and other works have been selected to be sent to the moon in 2025 as part of the three separate rocket missions for the historical LunarCodex Project in collaboration with NASA/SpaceX. Find her at https://linktr.ee/meghasood.
Complexities of Knowing a Poet
2022 Winner of the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival Broadside Contest
I
They say it's not easy to know a poet,
a deluge of words punctuating each emotion
wrapped around the anxieties of those who
you love, those you lost--
life is a succession of intricate menageries of our curious heart
that gets stuck like a bottle near waves pushing against the bulwark
getting bullied by the waterfront
mercilessly.
II
They say it's not easy to love a poet,
who sees the pain neatly carved in the tight-lipped horizon
bleeding into the heaving bosom of crimson skies
as its birth the next day,
love is an elegy for acceptance, they say
another language mispronounced
by those who want to claim you
hold a lien to your soul,
when your only desire is to be a wren hand boat
floating above the skies
Untethered;
Unmoored.
III
They say it's not easy to understand a poet,
Words are the language of the wound--
that sits quietly beneath scabbed layers of grief
there is a chasm of deniability
that sits between us tied together by a thin thread of responsibility
when I utter the words
of hunger, of love , of acceptance
in a language foreign to you.
IV
They say it's not easy to know a poet,
a shifty-eyed moon carrying the diabolical mind
ready to strip your verses
till it finds meaning in the self
Words have the power to be the language of the stone
sitting still and heavy with grief,
a long desire of a blind stone to make ripples
on the thin skin of the lake.
V
They say it's not easy to define a poet,
a soul anointed with the desire
of freedom and tenderness
while facing atrocities of life
as the hand reaches out in empathy
towards the silhouette of your ephemeral existence
trying to meet another in solitude and deep connection.
It’s not easy to know your lost self,
It’s not easy to know a poet.
2022 Winner of the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival Broadside Contest
I
They say it's not easy to know a poet,
a deluge of words punctuating each emotion
wrapped around the anxieties of those who
you love, those you lost--
life is a succession of intricate menageries of our curious heart
that gets stuck like a bottle near waves pushing against the bulwark
getting bullied by the waterfront
mercilessly.
II
They say it's not easy to love a poet,
who sees the pain neatly carved in the tight-lipped horizon
bleeding into the heaving bosom of crimson skies
as its birth the next day,
love is an elegy for acceptance, they say
another language mispronounced
by those who want to claim you
hold a lien to your soul,
when your only desire is to be a wren hand boat
floating above the skies
Untethered;
Unmoored.
III
They say it's not easy to understand a poet,
Words are the language of the wound--
that sits quietly beneath scabbed layers of grief
there is a chasm of deniability
that sits between us tied together by a thin thread of responsibility
when I utter the words
of hunger, of love , of acceptance
in a language foreign to you.
IV
They say it's not easy to know a poet,
a shifty-eyed moon carrying the diabolical mind
ready to strip your verses
till it finds meaning in the self
Words have the power to be the language of the stone
sitting still and heavy with grief,
a long desire of a blind stone to make ripples
on the thin skin of the lake.
V
They say it's not easy to define a poet,
a soul anointed with the desire
of freedom and tenderness
while facing atrocities of life
as the hand reaches out in empathy
towards the silhouette of your ephemeral existence
trying to meet another in solitude and deep connection.
It’s not easy to know your lost self,
It’s not easy to know a poet.
Poems
National League of American Pen Women, National Poetry Month, 2023
https://www.nlapw.org/2023/04/27/featured-poem-trails-of-kindness/
Life in Quarantine Project, CESTA ( Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis), Stanford University
https://lifeinquarantine.org/megha-sood/
PoetryXHunger (2021 World Food Day Special, United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization)
https://www.poetryxhunger.com/wfd-2021/category/megha-sood
National League of American Pen Women, National Poetry Month, 2023
https://www.nlapw.org/2023/04/27/featured-poem-trails-of-kindness/
Life in Quarantine Project, CESTA ( Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis), Stanford University
https://lifeinquarantine.org/megha-sood/
PoetryXHunger (2021 World Food Day Special, United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization)
https://www.poetryxhunger.com/wfd-2021/category/megha-sood
Reviews
Book Review “My Body Lives Like a Threat” published in American Book Review, Fall 2023 by Austin Alexis
Review of the poetry collection “My Body Lives Like a Threat” published in American Book Review, Fall 2023
Book Review” My Body Lives Like a Threat”, FlowerSong Press, 2022 by Dr. Santosh Bakaya for Setu Magazine, March 2022
https://www.setumag.com/2022/03/book-review-my-body-lives-like-threat.html
Review of the poetry collection “My Body Lives Like a Threat” published in North of Oxford by Candice Louisa Daquin, March 2022
https://northofoxford.wordpress.com/2022/03/01/my-body-lives-like-a-threat-by-megha-sood/
Book Review “My Body Lives Like a Threat” published in American Book Review, Fall 2023 by Austin Alexis
Review of the poetry collection “My Body Lives Like a Threat” published in American Book Review, Fall 2023
Book Review” My Body Lives Like a Threat”, FlowerSong Press, 2022 by Dr. Santosh Bakaya for Setu Magazine, March 2022
https://www.setumag.com/2022/03/book-review-my-body-lives-like-threat.html
Review of the poetry collection “My Body Lives Like a Threat” published in North of Oxford by Candice Louisa Daquin, March 2022
https://northofoxford.wordpress.com/2022/03/01/my-body-lives-like-a-threat-by-megha-sood/
Interviews
Perched on the literary bridge for hyphenated identities, iGlobal- The Voice of Global Indians by Yogesh Patel
https://www.iglobalnews.com/icommunity/columns/perched-on-the-literary-bridge-for-hyphenated-identities
Writers Edition for the PILF 2025 ( Panorama International Literary Festival 2025)
https://www.writersedition.com/megha-sood-an-inspiring-voice-in-contemporary-literature/
Editors Choice in the National Poetry Month Featured in the Kritya Journal, April 2024
https://kritya.in/in-the-name-of-poetry-eng-april/
Perched on the literary bridge for hyphenated identities, iGlobal- The Voice of Global Indians by Yogesh Patel
https://www.iglobalnews.com/icommunity/columns/perched-on-the-literary-bridge-for-hyphenated-identities
Writers Edition for the PILF 2025 ( Panorama International Literary Festival 2025)
https://www.writersedition.com/megha-sood-an-inspiring-voice-in-contemporary-literature/
Editors Choice in the National Poetry Month Featured in the Kritya Journal, April 2024
https://kritya.in/in-the-name-of-poetry-eng-april/
Other Links
InFull Color Spoken Word Performance video as part of the Speicher Rubin Women's Center's 50th anniversary at New Jersey City University
https://www.infullcolor.org/single-post/ifc-all-stars-bring-the-house-down-at-njcu
Featured on the PBS American Portrait
https://www.pbs.org/american-portrait/story/29368/megha-s-jersey-city-nj-my-american-dream/
Press Mention for the co-edited (“The Medusa Project”, Mookychick Press, UK) and The Polaris Anthology selected as the digital payload in NYTimes and NJ.Com
https://www.nj.com/hudson/2022/03/jersey-city-writers-co-edited-the-medusa-project-is-headed-to-the-moon.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/27/arts/design/lunar-codex-time-capsule-moon.html
InFull Color Spoken Word Performance video as part of the Speicher Rubin Women's Center's 50th anniversary at New Jersey City University
https://www.infullcolor.org/single-post/ifc-all-stars-bring-the-house-down-at-njcu
Featured on the PBS American Portrait
https://www.pbs.org/american-portrait/story/29368/megha-s-jersey-city-nj-my-american-dream/
Press Mention for the co-edited (“The Medusa Project”, Mookychick Press, UK) and The Polaris Anthology selected as the digital payload in NYTimes and NJ.Com
https://www.nj.com/hudson/2022/03/jersey-city-writers-co-edited-the-medusa-project-is-headed-to-the-moon.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/27/arts/design/lunar-codex-time-capsule-moon.html