<p><strong>&nbsp;&lsquo;Sumana Roy is one of the most original writers in Indian English today, whose writing easily slides out of the clutches of genres.&rsquo;&mdash;<em>The Indian Express</em></strong><br />
&lsquo;&ldquo;Every relationship is a long-distance relationship,&rdquo; we read in one of Sumana Roy&rsquo;s intriguing new poems. <em>Out of Syllabus</em> brilliantly anatomizes those relationships, viewing them from every disciplinary perspective: chemistry, physics, biology, geography, history, botany&mdash;and finally art. The result is a dazzling dissection of love, longing, and loss in all their conflicting moods and moments. Roy&rsquo;s images and metaphors are as enigmatic as they are precise. However private and personal her subjects, Roy maintains an aesthetic distance, wit and verbal control that recalls Sylvia Plath&mdash;but a Plath less angry, wiser&mdash;even philosophical. This is a very special book&mdash;one that deserves a wide readership.&rsquo;<br />
&mdash;Marjorie Perloff, Emeritus Professor, Stanford University<br />
&lsquo;Sumana Roy&rsquo;s wonderful book of poems, <em>Out of Syllabus</em>, combines rational ordering with the &ldquo;unreason&rdquo; of striking figures of speech. The rational ordering lies in the naming of sections as items in a comprehensive syllabus: &ldquo;History&rdquo;, &ldquo;Chemistry&rdquo;, &ldquo;Physics&rdquo; and so on. The striking figures of speech are everywhere in these poems. They give &ldquo;out&rdquo; in the book&rsquo;s title a negative as well as a positive meaning. These metaphors are often coupled to what they figure by way of a key word in <em>Out of Syllabus</em>: &ldquo;is.&rdquo; But you must read these powerful and challenging poems for yourself, dear reader, to get a feeling for what they are like and for what they mean as unique poetic experiences.&rsquo;<br />
&mdash;J. Hillis Miller, Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus, University of California at Irvine</p>