Overview

Deluded is a raw, unflinching collection of poetry and prose that chronicles one woman's fight to hold on-to her children, her identity, and her voice-while navigating grief, displacement, and the fractures of a system that fails to listen. Written as a living journal, these poems move between despair and defiance, silence and protest, love and loss. Sehgal writes from the margins of motherhood, migration, mental health, and survival, capturing the intimate cost of separation and the quiet resilience required to endure it. Her verses do not seek permission; they bear witness. At once deeply personal and urgently political, Deluded interrogates labels, power, and the thin line between pain and perception. It asks uncomfortable questions about justice, belonging, and who is believed when a woman speaks-especially when she refuses to disappear. This is not a polished narrative of recovery. It is a record of endurance. A testament to love that persists. A voice that refuses erasure. Deluded will resonate with readers drawn to confessional poetry, feminist literature, and stories that challenge silence-reminding us that even in isolation, the act of writing can be an act of resistance.

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9781923679016

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Reviews

""Deluded is not a book you casually read, it is one you encounter. Payal Sehgal writes with an unfiltered honesty that is rare in contemporary poetry. Her work moves fearlessly between vulnerability and defiance, documenting lived pain without romanticising it. What makes this collection extraordinary is its refusal to soften truth for comfort. These poems breathe with urgency, clarity, and moral conviction. Deluded stands as both a literary work and a human record, one that deserves to be read, discussed, and remembered."" Thomas Hadson (Author of Sleight Words) ""Deluded stands as an act of witness. Payal Sehgal's poetry is brave in its refusal to soften pain or dilute experience. These poems speak for those too often unheard, making this an important and confronting contribution to Australian literature."" Austin Cornelison (Author of Fragments of the Heart) ""There is a raw immediacy to Deluded that stays with you. Sehgal's poems move between fragility and fierce resolve, offering a powerful meditation on loss, identity, and resilience. This is poetry written from lived truth."" Courtney Irish (Author of Tiger)

Author Information

Payal Sehgal is an artist and writer who lives in Canberra, Australia. She is also a mother, and much of her work is deeply shaped by lived experience, resilience, and reflection on justice, belonging, and human dignity.Her writing is concerned with the lived realities of marginalised voices, particularly Indigenous communities and migrants in Australia. She reflects on how systems of power, silence, and punishment can impact families-especially women who, even in contemporary society, find themselves separated from their children.Through poetry and prose, Payal explores themes of identity, loss, endurance, hope, and survival. Her work seeks not only to tell a personal story, but also to raise questions about equity, compassion, and the kind of society we are shaping for future generations.

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