Aditi Dasgupta was among the poets whose poems were shortlisted from The Poetry Writing Contest 2025 organized by The Hemlock Journal. Her poem ‘Plum Cake in My Chest’ gained 5th position and was published in ‘Special Poetry Issue’.

Listen to ‘Plum Cake in My Chest’ read by Aditi Dasgupta (Cick the below play button)

Or, read ‘Plum Cake in My Chest’ and other 24 shortlisted poems, BUY the Special Poetry Issue : Click Here.

I always wrote and, most importantly, I have always carried those hefty notebooks with me when I changed cities, but I never got the courage to send anything out.

Interviewer: Congratulations on being one of the winners of the Contest. Could you tell us a little about yourself and your journey with poetry?

Aditi Dasgupta: Thank you so much for this honour. I am profoundly happy and honestly the feeling hasn’t sunk in yet. I was aware how prestigious the journal is, how ambitious the judging panel was and how deeply personal yet competitive the space of poetry is. This recognition will always be a significant milestone in my writing journey. 

I am a writer at heart and writing has always been my first mode of expression. Over the years, I found the right opportunities to learn and hone this craft at Yale and Harvard’s residencies. More than the programs themselves, I was always hungry for a mentor who could guide me towards the kind of writer I wanted to become, and I am unbelievably grateful to find a few mentors, who even after 15-odd years of being around, have always shared their feedback (or scathing remarks) on my pieces. Years later, some of these have found home in noted international journals and literary platforms. My most recent nature-themed haikus have also been published in Ikusei, an anthology by the Quillkeepers Press. 

The idea of poetry was first introduced to me by my grandfather in the early 90s and I was around my brother who wrote some excellent poems. Therefore, to write well, I realised I had to learn to read poems first, understand the metre, genre, intent, purpose, and most importantly plot. And a beautifully crafted poem is nothing short of a miracle. I have often cried my heart out at poetry slams, interacted with writers from across the world and every time I am moved to see the stories, the microcosmic worlds that poems encapsulate. Poetry is exactly that for me—a world where you want to stay in as long as possible before you turn that page. 

Interviewer: What inspired you to write your winning poem? Was there a particular moment, memory, or feeling that sparked it?

Aditi Dasgupta: The theme was love but instinctively I was drawn to grief as my primal emotion. I am a hoarder of heartbreaks and “Plumcake in my Chest” was the most natural outcome of my version of love. I mean, this piece had to be written. You could change the colour of the kurta the guy is wearing in the poem, the dishes, the gender-roles, landmark or the cultural undertones, and this piece will become yours. The desire to share that last meal together or the pretence that you wish to keep up for yet another social gathering is a feeling doesn’t heal with time. The intensity may subdue but the ‘desire’ or ‘despair’ is the foundation when we write anything about love. 

Interviewer: Since the theme was Love, how do you personally define or understand love? Did that definition shape your poem?

Aditi Dasgupta: This is an important question for anyone tackling the theme of love in their writing. And I would be a fool to define love as a feeling. But I can definitely understand what love is. It is waiting at the dinner table alone watch the meal turn cold, it is also craving a hug but denying it physically at the same time; love is using your partner’s shampoo when you hate how it lathers up, it is also about lamenting different versions of personalities we all tend to become in the process of loving. Plum Cake captured that transition in time. The boy has met the girl’s parents many times before, but this heartbreak seems recent. The girl yearns for one last pretence as if that pretence will be her closure. So, the girl is the gatekeeper of memories, and the boy is inanimate, almost dangerously cold. 

To write this piece, I had to remove myself off from the emotional locus. I had to be the observer of the library of feelings that can be felt in love. Poetry is about a lot of feelings and sensory poems have always been my clique. And to write Plum Cake, I had to be the outsider looking in. I guess that is what helped me capture the despair appropriately.  

But I can definitely understand what love is. It is waiting at the dinner table alone watch the meal turn cold, it is also craving a hug but denying it physically at the same time; love is using your partner’s shampoo when you hate how it lathers up, it is also about lamenting different versions of personalities we all tend to become in the process of loving.

Interviewer:  Do you remember the very first poem you ever wrote? How does your writing today compare with that early attempt?

Aditi Dasgupta: Unfortunately no, I don’t remember writing my first poem. I was a highschooler then, and it must have been something I scribbed on the last page of one of my math notebooks. 

But yes, I do have a fleeting image of me writing a rather longish poem something which I didn’t even bother to return to later. I never disclosed it to anyone as I was reading my grandfather’s gray diary that had two Donne poems and my brother who was already mastering the craft so early in life. I was intimidated as hell. 

Interviewer: Which poets, writers, or artists influence your work the most?

Aditi Dasgupta: Definitely, the classics. Right from my undergraduate years till I completed my M.Phil in English Literature, I was reading canonical poets only. I was most fond of John Donne, Byron and Keats and somewhere down the line, I was stunned to read Eliot, Neruda, Ondaatje, Plath and Tagore. I am often drawn to post-modern/modern chaos and absurd imageries appeal to me deeply. I had a memorable time reading Alexander Pope on one hand and Cilapattikaram on the other… lyrical poems had quite the effect on me in those years. I think, I realised this exposure helped me decide the kind of writer I wanted to become. 

Interviewer: Do you think poetry still holds power and relevance in today’s fast-paced, digital world?

Aditi Dasgupta: A burning question and a well-timed one. We are living in the most uncertain times. Warfare and political upheavals are at its peak. I think, reading and writing poetry at this juncture, not only allows us to pause from information deluge but also helps us heal in poignant ways. We are collectively writing poetry more now I think, and this is a natural response to the unrest outside. 

Interviewer: As a poet or writer, are you afraid of the rise of AI generated content? How do you think the writing community survives against the tide?

Aditi Dasgupta: Oh, absolutely. This is also why I always fall back on the safe space of the canonical poets. They are not tainted with AI for sure. There is a slow unpacking of narratives, contexts and plots in the poems written in the 18^th century. A slow pain that is intense and lets you sink in. 

As a writer, I think it is extremely crucial to find a writing community in the first place. I am a part of one. We regularly discuss the dangers of AI, how one can actually see through it, and how can we find a great home for our thoughts only by putting pen to paper. There is absolutely no other way. I also believe, once we stop feeding the AI with great literature, it will automatically die a silent death. It is a slippery slope indeed, and whatever I am reading online, will always be tainted by AI in some way or the other. 

It is a personal decision to not rush the process of writing and that is what will let you eventually shine. In addition, I believe many journals are proactively resorting to detecting AI content with their submissions so one needs to have a lot of integrity to write and write from the space of personal experiences. Basically, write the poem that no one else can write. That is the only way to escape AI.

Interviewer: What advice would you give to emerging poets who want to write about big themes like Love without falling into clichés?

Aditi Dasgupta: Facing hurt, grief, loss or betrayal is where your story starts to take shape in your mind. As a writer, this is what I personally follow. I do not attempt to write when the loss is intense. Grief can produce great life-altering emotions. It can fuel your writing. But this is when I do not write at all. I allow myself the time to heal. At times, it takes weeks or even years. I usually use this time to scribble my emotions on paper, read books that I am naturally drawn to, compile quotes or intelligent lines that I read somewhere, write without conclusions: just raw sketches that will wait to come to life later. 

Once I have healed enough, I look back on the scars and write with a wisdom that has befallen me. Raw emotions often have produced anger and the poignancy failed to arrive. Writing from the space of scars is very important for me to write a love poem. This has greatly helped me avoid falling into cliches. This process has made me awfully slow with my submissions, but I know when I am writing from a shallow, angered space—I won’t be able to do justice to the theme. 

Interviewer: What projects are you currently working on, or what can readers expect from you in the near future? 

Aditi Dasgupta: So, my creative non-fiction titled “Snack-Shack and the Confessions of a Tired Parent” is launching next month with Readomania. It is a genre-bending read as every chapter follows a different literary style – epistolary, research paper, one-act plays, mock-epic poetry and what not. This book is an anti-thesis to the parenting self-help industry and while it took me two whole years, two kids and one marriage to write this book of humour, I am glad it is coming out. In hindsight, the book is also a deep reflection on the body image issues, depression and the constructs that women are constantly sliding into to conform to ideal parenting roles. But I guarantee, you will laugh your way through, and this year is going to be epic. In addition, I am nearing the completion of my first draft of a poetry collection of 30 poems that are about existing between languages and that is experimental again. I feel I am ready to share a very personal slice of my writing with the world, and I can’t wait to send this out to publishers. 

About Aditi:

Aditi is an ordinary feminist and a recovering academic. Her book Silencing of the Sirens has drawn critical acclaim, and her work echoes across Borderless Journal, The Wise Owl Literary Magazine, Pangyrus Literary Magazine, The Hooghly Review, MeanPepperVine, SheThePeopleTVXUsawa, and The Writer’s Hour Magazine to name a few.