Shalini Samuel was born and brought up in Kanyakumari and started blogging after completing her Post Graduation in Engineering. She had composed several verses during her school days for poetry competitions but almost forgot about that aspect of her life during college days. However, blogging... Read more
Shalini Samuel was born and brought up in Kanyakumari and started blogging after completing her Post Graduation in Engineering. She had composed several verses during her school days for poetry competitions but almost forgot about that aspect of her life during college days. However, blogging helped her to retrace her steps back to the world of poetry. She regularly shared her poems through her blog. Initially, it was her close friends and family that were among her first readers. But as time passed, she started getting new readers. One day, the little Haiku master of India, Ramesh Anand happened to visit her blog. Quite impressed with Shalini’s output, he left a comment suggesting her to send poems to online magazines and anthologies.
Among the poetry resources strongly recommended by Mr. Anand was MuseIndia, to which she shortly submitted a fresh poem. Soon the then editor of MuseIndia forum, Kumarendra Mallick informed her that the poem was accepted for publication. This little achievement motivated Shalini to next set her sights on print magazines and poetry anthologies. She got her first chance in Inklinks, an anthology which carried poems by eminent personalities such as the late President, APJ Abdul Kalam. Her next poem got published in the Taj Mahal Review, a magazine which has a diverse readership.
Soon her works were appearing in both in print and online, with one of them being chosen as the poem of the month by Writers Globe. Interestingly, she never received her first winning certificate for she gave a wrong address for the fear of her true identity getting revealed!
She was the second runner-up in the Valentine Poetry Contest conducted by the Writer's Empire. The forum helped her poems reach a wider audience. In a contest held by Miracle ezine, she was the only Indian among the 20 winners. The biggest site for poetry, Poem hunter conducted an international poetry contest where she missed the prize by a few points, coming fourth in the contest. Her exposure to the works of poets from other parts of the world has helped her to further refine her art. She has been variously chosen as “the poet of the month” as well as “highly commendable poet” by Destiny Poets, UK. She has been adjudged the winner in mini contests conducted by various poetry groups on social media several times.
Shalini is a regular contributor to the following magazines and journals:
The Taj Mahal Review
Harvests of New Millenium
Setu bilingual (US)
Inflight LIt magazine
Episteme (Managed by Bharat College of Arts and Commerce)
The Literary Herald
Different Truths
Atunis Poetry
Glomag
The Literary Jewels
Kritya
Inklinks
Duanes Poe tree
Her poems have also been published in the esteemed English language newspaper from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, The Hans India. Three of her books are taught to grade 8 and grade 12 school children of Kitaotao National High School in The Philippines.
She is one of the contributors to the book Contemporary Women Poets of India published by the Poetry Society of India. She has to her credit three poetry collections, all being best-sellers (online). In addition, they have also received favourable reviews from readers and critics alike. In the meantime, her short story won the Bharat Award (seventh position). She even took part in the eighth international poetry meet conducted by poesisonline. Her two upcoming poetry collections are due for release shortly. Her poem ‘Sugary Syrup’ was nominated as the poem of the year 2017 by Salis Online Magazine.
Apart from all this, Shalini continues to work as a freelance editor and content writer in her hometown.
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