False ownership—
this is strangely annoying—
when you see arrogance in
someone who doesn’t own a thing.
Can’t conjure a thing out of thin air
let alone a human being.
You are just the renter here. You don’t own shit.

Megha Sood, Excerpt from ‘The Color of Our Rights: A Reproductive Rights Collaboration’, Darker Objects

“No artist can thrive in isolation. An artistic community serves as the perfect cauldron for creative growth and inspiration. ‘Darker Objects’ stands as a powerful testament to this sentiment, and I am immensely proud and honored to contribute seven pieces of my work to this book. Collectively, they amplify our voices in the fight against the social evils and injustices that plague our society.”-Megha Sood

Megha Sood is an Award-winning Asian American Poet, Editor, and Literary Activist from New Jersey, USA. She is a Literary Partner with “Life in Quarantine”, at Stanford University. Member of National League of American Pen Women (NLAPW), Women’s National Book Association, and United Nations Association-US Chapter. She is the recipient of the 2021 Poet Fellowship from MVICW (Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creating Writing), a 2022 mini-grant for Kundiman, a 2020 National Level Winner for the Poetry Matters Project, and a Four-Time State Level Winner for NAMI NJ Dara Axelrod Poetry Award. Her works have been nominated for Pushcart and Best of Net. She is an Associate Editor for the literary journals Mookychick (UK) and Brownstone Poets (USA). Author of Chapbook (My Body is Not an Apology, Finishing Line Press, 2021) and Full Length (My Body Lives Like a Threat, FlowerSongPress, 2022). Her widely anthologized poems, essays, and other works talk about her experience as a first-generation immigrant and woman of color. Her co-edited anthology and a few selected poems The Medusa Project has been selected as a digital payload to be sent to the moon in 2024 as part of the historical LunarCodex Project in collaboration with NASA/SpaceX. Find her at https://linktr.ee/meghasood