Author, Poet, Facilitator
Poetry Debut:
When I Reach For Your Pulse
(Four Way Books, March 2023)
*for review copies and publicity requests, contact:
publicity@fourwaybooks.com
“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
Poems and Publications
Selected Online and Anthologized Poems
"Midwest Physics: Third Law" in Plume 10 Anthology, 2022
"Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis" in The Spinoff, 2022
"Still, Nothing" in Pigeon Pages
"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)
"Entomology // Mirage" in tap Magazine (2016)
Musical Collaborations
Poems in Album Booklet for Streams by Yuma Uesaka and Marilyn Crispell
"Three Songs to Poems by Rushi Vyas" Song Cycle for Voice, Cello, Bass Clarinet, and Tanpura by composer Andrew Perkins
"How Alive You Are" Song Cycle for Voice and Piano by composer Kenneth Young (In-Progress)
Select Honors for WIRFYP
Reviews/Essays/Interviews
Collaborative Essay on the Collaborative Process in Raga Bhairav with Rajiv Mohabir
Review of Arrow by Sumita Chakraborty, in GASHER
Review of The Voice of Sheila Chandra by Kazim Ali, forthcoming in Asian American Literary Review
Review of Night Sky With Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong, in Timber
Interview with Terrell Jamal Terry, in Timber
Video/Audio
"Nine poets read from A Clear Dawn" / NZ Poetry Shelf / 2021
"Episode 140: Rushi Vyas & Rajiv Mohabir" / It's Lit with PhDJ Podcast / 2021
"Writing, Detachment, & Ritual w/ Rushi Vyas" / Sema Podcast / January 2021
Reading / Innisfree Poetry Cafe / Boulder, CO / April 2018
"Doctor" / Solo Performance / Counterpath Press / Denver, CO / March 2018
"River of Entangled Voices" / with composer Trevor Villwock and poet Marcus Williams / Boulder Chorale / 2016
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
Facilitation
Facilitator / Editor / Curriculum Developer
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Facilitator, Ōtepoti 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 a writer, educator, and current PhD student at Te Whare Wānanga o Ōtākou / University of Otago. He is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection When I Reach For Your Pulse (Four Way Books, 2023) which was a two-time finalist for the National Poetry Series in the US, and the co-author of the chapbook Between Us, Not Half a Saint, with Rajiv Mohabir. He earned a B.S. from the University of Michigan and an MFA from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He currently serves as Reviews/Interviews Editor for GASHER Journal. Recent poetry has been published in The Spinoff, The Georgia Review, Indiana Review, Pigeon Pages, Landfall (NZ), Redivider, Boulevard Magazine, Tin House, The Offing, Adroit, Waxwing, and elsewhere.
Born in Ohio, Rushi has called Michigan, Colorado, New York home, and is a recent immigrant to Ōtepoti Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand with his partner, singer Tessa Romano. Rushi has served as a Career Advisor at the University of Michigan, a Curriculum Developer and Co-Founder at an education based start-up, Assistant Director of Career Services at NYU, and Teacher of Creative Writing and Psychology at the University level.
Upcoming Events
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Seattle: Thursday 9 March 2023, 12:30-1:30pm PST
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Book Signing for When I Reach for Your Pulse, AWP Bookfair, Table 803-Four Way Books
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Seattle: Thursday 9 March 2023, 7-9pm PST
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Poetry Reading: Four Way Books. Seattle Beer Co. 1427 Western Ave. Seattle, WA
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Seattle: Friday 10 March 2023, 1:45-3pm PST
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AWP Craft Panel: "Sharp Tongues: Multilinguality in Emerging Asian Diasporic Poetics." Room 332, Summit Building, Seattle Convention Center
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w/ Nilufar Karimi, Phuong T. Vuong, and Vyxz Vasquez
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Seattle: Friday 10 March 2023, 3:20-4:35pm PST
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AWP Craft Panel: "When There are No Words: Grieving Suicide through Poetry." Rooms 340-342, Summit Building, Seattle Convention Center
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w/ Chloe Honum, CL Young, Jeffrey Pethybridge, and John James
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Seattle: Saturday 11 March 2023, 11am-Noon PST
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Book Signing for When I Reach for Your Pulse, Open Books: A Poem Emporium, 108 Cherry Street, Seattle, WA
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w/ Nilufar Karimi's Nuclear Deal
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Virtual: Wednesday 15 March 2023, 7pm EST (16 March, 1pm NZST)
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Four Way Books Spring Virtual Reading and Launch hosted by WORD Bookstores, Register for Free link at wordbookstores.com/events
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w/ Eugenia Leigh, Jennifer Franklin, and Rob Schlegel
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Ōtepoti Dunedin: Saturday 18 March, 7pm NZST and Sunday 19 March @ 3pm and 7pm NZST
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TwentyNineteen by Maddy Parkins-Craig debut at Dunedin FRINGE, Te Korokoro o Te Tūī, 141 Union Street East, Dunedin, Tickets $15-20
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Reading as part of musical performance alongside Iona Winter and Emma Neale
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Contact
For Review Copies or Publicity Requests for When I Reach for Your Pulse:
To find me:
Email: rvyas2 [at] gmail [dot] com
Instagram: rushivyaspoet