Overview

Self-Portraits Ex Machina is a poetry collection by Devi S. Laskar that employs various poetry forms to cast light on inequities, racism, othering and misogyny in contemporary American culture. The title is a play on the phrase, Deus Ex Machina (God in the machine), which is often used to explain the inexplicable.

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Reviews

In this dazzling and potent collection, Devi S. Laskar fuses memory with rage, turning hunger into vengeance, carving form into beauty as well as tragedy. These poems render personal history as haunting revelations of body, mind, and spirit, carrying urgent messages that demand to be heard. -Elizabeth Rosner, author of THIRD EAR and SURVIVOR CAFE Self-Portraits Ex Machina is a searing collection that dispenses thunder and lightning through its poems. Divine intervention is replaced by human resilience, strength, ingenuity and vulnerability. Through innovative haibuns, contrapuntal poems and other experimental forms, Devi Laskar's work encompasses everything from burning crosses and Klan rallies to powerful meditations on motherhood, marriage, and food that carry the weight of cultural memory. Her poems document American racism with razor sharp precision while transforming that documentation into art, as in ""Restaurant Queue Contrapuntal"" where prejudice at a hostess stand becomes a two-voiced fury of resistance. Memory is a dizzying kaleidoscope in Laskar's work-reassembling and taking apart moments of trauma and triumph. The plaintive cries to ""God"" that echo throughout her poems become testament to human persistence in the face of institutional failure. This is a necessary book for our times, bearing witness to self-reliance when systems meant to protect and help fall short. -Shikha Malaviya, author of Anandibai Joshee: A Life in Poems Devi S. Laskar's luminescent Self-Portraits Ex Machina is a feast in the physical and spiritual sense. Laskar allows her readers to embark on a poetic voyage complete with intellectual meditations on English syntax, observations on victuals offered at vacation Bible camps, and honest recollections of the perils of intergenerational recipe translation. Masterfully injecting nuance into every verse, Laskar's poems transcend bodily experiences and cultural divides, drawing on myriad previously established traditions-whether retelling ancient Greek myths or satirizing whitewashed country music. Self-Portraits also encourages a higher level of engagement from its readers, boasting interactive poems in the style of both Mad Libs and bricolage chaotically coordinating popular newspaper headlines. The result is a singularly immersive literary adventure, one that asks much of its readers, and delivers even more. In the world she weaves, tapestries of cultural critique and personal outlook deliver a collection that demands lingering with one's own biases while simultaneously facilitating the abolishment of the boundaries that enable them. -Ewa Chrusciel, author of Yours, Purple Gallinule and three other books

Author Information

Devi S. Laskar is a poet, novelist, artist, photographer, former newspaper reporter and lifelong Tar Heel. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks. Self-Portraits Ex Machina is her debut poetry collection. Laskar is the author of the award-winning novel, The Atlas of Reds and Blues, and recently, Circa. Her third novel, Midnight, At The War is forthcoming from Mariner Books (2026). Her debut spoken-word album is forthcoming from Someplace Called Brooklyn record label later this year. She holds degrees from Columbia University, University of Illinois and UNC-Chapel Hill. She now lives in California.

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