My (Koshy AV's) la(s)test bio worked out together with ChatGPT

 Koshy AV, also known as Ampat Koshy, AV Koshy, and Ampat Varghese Koshy, is an Indian poet, fiction writer, and critic. He was born on November 23, 1964, in Trivandrum, the capital of the southern Indian state of Kerala.

Koshy received his Bachelor's degree in English Literature from Mar Ivanios College, Trivandrum, Kerala, and went on to complete his Master's degree and Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Kerala. He also obtained a post-graduate diploma in education with I Rank from Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology.

Koshy has published several books of poetry, fiction, and criticism, and his works have been included in various anthologies and literary magazines. Some of his notable publications include "A Treatise on Poetry for Beginners", "Scream and other Urbane Legends", "Beckett's English Poetry", and " Birds of Different Feathers" which along with "Allusions to Simplicity" are Poetry Compilations. He has also written critical works such as "Wrighteings: In Media Res" and "Wake Up, India: Essays for our Times".

Apart from writing, Koshy has also been actively involved in teaching, editing, anthology-making, writing articles and research. He has taught at several universities in India and abroad, including the University of Jazan in Saudi Arabia and the University of Magrib in Libya. He has also presented papers or given talks at various national and international conferences.

Koshy has received numerous awards and honors for his contributions to literature, including nominations to Pushcart Poetry Prize 2012, Hindu Literary Prize for Fiction 2017, and Poem of the Year nomination Spillwords 2022. He was adjudged best researcher Jazan University 2018, and has won a best foreign poem award from Italy in 2021. He has also been adjudged a good poet by Camel Saloon, Destiny Poets UK, and Spillwords. He has a certificate from NANOWRIMO USA and has completed Napowrimo USA once and appeared in Indian Literature Sahitya Akademi and has a research paper written on him. His books or papers appear in prestigious libraries like Harvard, Amherst, Stanford, Library of Congress, Trivandrum and is also on the syllabus in Calicut University in the reading list etc. They are also indexed on World Cat. He is much translated with Wrighteings being translated into six European languages. He made the roseate sonnet form, founded The Significant League, and the Autism for Help Village Project, and the Reuel International Prize, 2014 till now. He currently resides in Bengaluru, Karnataka, where he continues to write and teach in Mount Carmel College Autonomous.

He has a few Amazon best-sellers to his credit (Wine-kissed Poems with Jagari Mukherjee, Vodka by the Volga with Santosh Bakaya, A Sonetto for the Poetic World/You heard the Scream, didn't you with Santosh Bakaya) plus 25 books with his name on the cover. He also has certificates from World Bank/Urgent Evoke (top 5), HarvardX, and one on Differentiating Instruction from USA. His paper on Mahesh Dattani has more than 35000 reads and A Treatise on Poetry for Beginners has more than 20000 reads. Overall, he has 75000 reads or more on Research Gate. He is soon to be the editor of the relaunched international Fasihi magazine again. He is in the top two percent of the most read scholars on academia.edu and also good at syllabus and curriculum design, having designed or having been overseer for MA Literature syllabus Jazan University and presently working on American Literature and Romantic/Victorian Literature syllabus for Mount Carmel College, Bengaluru, as well as having been HoD in two places (Mallya Aditi Eng Dept., and Srishti (Liberal Arts Dept.), and Teaching and Learning Unit Head in Jazan.

My books have been catalogued by National Book Trust India and exhibited in Dubai, Turkey, Indonesia and for the most prestigious book fair in the world in Frankfurt as well as in Pragati Maidan New Delhi for the Book Fair etc. I am also a good research guide, researcher and creative writing teacher- expert having experience in all these areas with guiding and writing.

The fiery British writer Dominic Francis reviews our book A Sonetto For The Poetic World By Dr Ampat Koshy & You heard the Scream, Didn’t you? By Dr Santosh Bakaya.

 A Book Review of Ampat Koshy’s ‘A “Sonneto” For The Poetic World’ and 'You heard the scream, didn’t you' by Santosh Bakaya 

-written by Dominic Francis

I really enjoyed this trip through history examining the sonnet form. I was reminded that the sonnet (‘sonneto’ in Italian, which means ‘little sound’ in English) was originally a small song sung to the accompaniment of an instrument. I think it was in that vein that I crafted my own Shakespearean sonnet (volta, iambic & all) some five or six years again, and then set it to music https://tonnan.bandcamp.com/track/i-never-knew-her-2

Koshy’s explanation of the form’s sequential evolution is concise & clear – there’s so much to take in – as the author offers his own critical musings on a great variety of poems (most by reasonably well-known poets but a few obscure enough for this writer/reader-in-training not to have heard of).  A few of the poems I’d read and enjoyed during school and my brief stay at University; it was fantastic to see them again after so many years… and I look forward to reading more of the poets referred to (whose poems are usually quoted in full here), particularly Spenser.

Whenever I was asked my favourite poem as a teenager, I would quickly reply “Bright Star by Keats!” I don’t think I even realized that Keats’ “Bright Star” was a sonnet. Although Koshy gives due praise to the poem, he uses the word ‘jejune’ (CORRECTION: he was quoting the critic called Matthew Arnold) to describe it; myself, I never felt that way about it- I think I accepted it as the vivid declaration of perpetual impossible love materialized through mountainous naturalistic images that it is! Had Keats not been the hopeless romantic that he was, I may not have pursued my expression through the medium of the written word. Reading Ampat Koshy’s commentary on the (probably infinite) variety of ways writers can use this form has inspired me to try my hand at attempting more sonnets, myself. I find writing good sonnets surprisingly difficult (I’ve done three or four ‘Shakespearean’ sonnets and one ‘Roseate’ [the form that Koshy himself invented])… but very satisfying to read once completed.

The second part of the book is a series of 50 Roseate sonnets. Ampat Koshy gets it right in the introduction — Bakaya is a master of urban atmosphere in this one, akin to Dickens. It’s quite easy and very gripping reading, but by my measure not quite as good as her epic masterpiece ‘OH HARK’. With that said, I haven’t ever seen any prose-poetry quite as determined as this — the story is told in quite a linear fashion, from one event to another, unfolding like a little movie. I almost longed for one more philosophical sonnet to conclude this story.

To quote Leonard Cohen,” It’s like our visit to the moon or to that other star. I guess you go for nothing if you really want to go that far.”

Who is Dominic Francis? A great British writer of spaced-out novels like God's Grotesque Puppets, poetry, and everything else, Dominic Francis is also a musician and a fine lyricist.

The book can be found here: https://www.amazon.in/Sonetto-Poetic-World-Heard-Scream/dp/B0BGDMHRJ6/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Koshy+AV&qid=1674224318&s=digital-text&sr=1-1-catcorr

Dominic Francis writes under the pen name Walking Doctor Tonnan.

Poet Lakshmi Venkatachalam's review of our book A Sonetto For The Poetic World By Dr Ampat Koshy & You heard the Scream, Didn’t you? By Dr Santosh Bakaya.

Lakshmi Venkatachalam wrote and posted this while I was sleeping - can't thank her enough for this wonderfully classy review!

A Sonetto For The Poetic World By Dr Ampat Koshy & You heard the Scream, Didn’t you? By Dr Santosh Bakaya.

My Review 19.1.2023

Just finished reading A Sonetto for the Poetic World by Dr Ampat Koshy and You Heard the Scream, Didn’t you? by Dr Santosh Bakaya.

This is a book about the history of sonnets, one of the most endearing of poetic forms, by Dr Ampat Koshy, in his inimitable style, who is an academician, poet and writer, with innumerable sonnets sprinkled here and there, the only reaction, a mere mortal like me, but with a passion for poetry can exclaim, is WOW.”

Once I started reading the book, I could not keep it down till I finished the last page and ended up reading even the back cover.

Dr Koshy has created the Roseate Sonnet form and Dr Santosh Bakaya’s “You heard the Scream, Didn’t you?” a full narrative poem of 50 Roseate Sonnets that follows Dr Koshy’s writing on the sonnets, and I would exclaim once again “Wow”,

Dr Bakaya weaves magic in her sonnets that tell a heart-wrenching story, that is relatable to life and times, past and present. If poetry should have the power to move a person’s heart, and evince empathy for the protagonist, “You heard the Scream, didn’t you?” moved me very much. Dr Bakaya has painted the ruthlessness and heartlessness of mob mentality and helplessness and innocence of victims trapped and suffering due to circumstances and prejudices.

Dr Koshy has in his History… proved again that he is a veteran of Poetic forms and Poetry. His interesting history of the Sonnets as it evolved from Italy, reaching English shores and Europe, America and Indian shores, from Renaissance to Modern Times, is written in such a very absorbing style that a reader would fall in love with the ‘Sonetto’ or sonnet. After travelling all over the world of sonnets through reading this book, I could not help but write a Roseate Sonnet of mine that I am posting here.

And Dr Koshy, Thanks for including me in your Dedication. I am happy that in my own humble way, I also inspired you to write this gem of a book.

Authorspress and Sudarshan Kcherry require special mention for having brought out this classic edition in an attractive manner. The book is available at Amazon.in.

Wah! Dr Ampat Koshy, Dr Santosh Bakaya and Sudarshan Kcherry !

A Roseate Sonnet 19.1.2023

Words flutter in her mind, as the mustard splutters in the frying pan,

They dance a merry jig, as the curry sizzles to a spicy dish.

In the midst of her hectic kitchen chores, words seek and tease her

To form lines of verse, within her spinning head.

No time for her to pen on paper, or tap on her phone,

Those shimmering words, that chase her like one possess’d.

When at last, the day is done, and her well-earn’d rest is won,

She sits by the window, to hear the range of thoughts that tails her.

She casts her refreshed eyes around,

LED lights inside, neon displays outside,

Silence within, cacophony outside,

Her dear ones in cocoons spun around them.

The words that vied within her mind for a space

Now finds in her poem, an eternal place.

Resplendent is the sky above,

On the blanket of night, twinkling stars greet her,

Suffusing her heart with bejewelled thoughts

Enshrined forever in her heartfelt lines.

Lakshmi Venkatachalam

with Sudarshana Ghosh Sudarshan Kcherry

Lakshmi I will be spreading this review all over the world.

Here is the link for those who have not got it yet.

"https://www.amazon.in/Sonetto.../dp/B0BGDMHRJ6/ref=sr_1_1

? crid=3MO0YQA7K8JZ4&keywords=Koshy+av&qid=1664539020&s=digital-text&sprefix=koshy+av%2Cdigital-text%2C193&sr=1-1-catcorr"

Lakshmi with our book.

Mary Annie AV's (Anna Maria's) Haikus

 1. Turning over a new leaf

My bookmark

Breaks into a yawn.

2. Gleam the jasmines

Her smiles.

My mother's garden.

3. Dad when he coughs

I reach out

The splinter in my eye.

4. Toothless

My little one gnaws off

pieces of my heart.

5. Mom,

In her tears I launch

my ship.

6. His fingers strum

I take a spin

Through childhood.

7. Lost I wander

The breeze wafts in

new hope.

Dr Mary Annie A. V., (M,Sc., Ph.D) writes under the pen name Anna Maria. She has been the recipient of the Shanker’s International prize in writing at the age of five for her poem titled My Brother, which was subsequently published in the Illustrated Weekly of India. She has been an announcer for the All India Radio English Yuvavani programmes for nearly ten years during her college career and has done several features for the English sections of Yuvavani, AIR, Trivandrum. Though her subject is Zoology, her life is writing and literature and to her the simplest definition of a Poem is : Virgin white paper Raped Rapt. She has been hugely acclaimed online and her poems have been published in Mirror, several anthologies in USA, U.K. and in e-zine magazines, in India and abroad. She has been featured in Jes Führmann’s “The Diary of Pink Pearl, A Bird’s Eye View” released by Bookstand Publishing 2013. (First trilogy in America about a Moluccan cockatoo.), She has also been featured in The Camel Saloon, Destiny Poets, The Little Child Magazine, Muse India, Indian Ruminations, The Plum Tree Books, No Nothing Nowhere, The Origami Publications, The Indian Ruminations, The Taj Mahal Review, The Gulmohar Magazine, Musings: A Mosaic Thanal Online, and many more. Her poems have been translated into Malayalam, Brazil, Arabic, Greek, Russian and French. At present, she works in the University of Kerala and resides in Trivandrum with her husband and three children. She also comperes for Gyanvani FM, Trivandrum. She has two published collections of poems: My Beads Unstrung. by Poetree Garden, Trivandrum (2006) and More Beads Unstrung, by Roots and Wings,(2011).

She has also recently appeared with her short stories in anthologies like Ether Ore.