In this inspiring book of divine discovery, poet and seeker Arundhathi Subramaniam gives us a glimpse into the lives of four self-contained, unapologetic female spiritual travelers. 

Tombolo Books is thrilled to welcome Arundhathi Subramaniam to the bookstore to share more about her beautiful spiritual guide, Women Who Wear Only Themselves: Four Travelers on Their Sacred Journeys. Subramaniam will be in conversation with local poet Avni Vyas! 

More about Women Who Wear Only Themselves

In life, spiritual paths are often as unique as we are. Bringing together the voices of four women mystics walking very different spiritual paths, poet Arundhathi Subramaniam reveals the expansive potential of forging an intimate, personal connection with the divine.

We'll meet these four travelers:

• Sri Annapurani Amma, who left the safety of home to follow the summons of a long-dead saint and chooses to live naked,
• Balarishi Vishwashirasini, a nada yoga teacher who became a guru as a child and admits she's missed out on a real childhood,
• Lata Mani, who discovered tantra after a major accident left her with a brain injury and today talks of how the spiritual life is deeply anchored in the wisdom of the body—not unlike the redwood trees of her adopted home, and
• Maa Karpoori, who needed to resist pressure to marry, and found her calling in a local yoga class and now radiates fierce independence and the contagious joy of living.

Sensitive, insightful, and lyrical, Women Who Wear Only Themselves bathes us in the kind of mystery that feels deeply familiar and invites us to connect with whatever sparks our spiritual fire.

Described as 'one of the finest poets writing in India today' [Keki Daruwalla, The Hindu, 2010] and 'a unique poet of our times... in a league all by herself' [Indian Literature, 2021], Arundhathi Subramaniam is a leading Indian poet and author of fifteen books of poetry and prose. Her most recent work includes the landmark Penguin anthology of Indian female mystic poetry, Wild Women; the book of poems, The Gallery of Upside Down Women; and a prose work on four contemporary women on spiritual journeys, Women Who Wear Only Themselves.

Her prose includes the much-reprinted Book of Buddha and the bestselling biography of a contemporary mystic, Sadhguru: More Than a Life, while her work as editor includes the much-loved Penguin anthology of Bhakti poetry, Eating God.

A recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award for Poetry 2020 (awarded by India's premier literary institution), and shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry 2015, her awards include the Mahakavi Kanhaiyalal Sethia Award for Poetry, the inaugural Khushwant Singh Poetry Prize, the Il Ceppo Prize in Italy, the Raza Award for Poetry, the SAARC Literature Award, the Devi Award for Literature from The New Indian Express, the Mystic Kalinga Award, the Charles Wallace and Homi Bhabha fellowships, among others. She has been active as curator, literary and performing arts critic and poetry editor. She divides her time between Mumbai, Chennai and New York.

Avni Vyas is the author of Little God (Burrow Press 2021), the chapbooks When I Was A Barefoot Cloud (Anhinga 2024) Far from Glorious Feeling (TOA 2021) and co-author of Candy in Our Brains (CutBank 2014). She is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at New College of Florida. You can read more of her work at https://linktr.ee/avnijvyas.