NEW YORK, NY, June 19, 2026 /24-7PressRelease/ — Drunken Boat / Fortunate Traveller Press is pleased to announce the publication of Bhutan, a bold and luminous multi-genre collaboration that defies easy categorization. Part travelogue, part lyric meditation, part photographic essay, Bhutan brings together the chiselled poetry and evocative photography of Sudeep Sen with the sharp, exploratory prose of Ravi Shankar—two acclaimed writers of the South Asian origin who travel deep into what is often called the world’s last Shangri-La, and return with something far more complicated and alive than myth.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Nestled in the eastern Himalayas, Bhutan has long cultivated its image as the happiest country on Earth—a kingdom that measures prosperity not in GDP but in Gross National Happiness. In this richly conceived book, Shankar approaches that claim with wit, analytical rigour, and genuine wonder, tracing the country’s modernizing monarchy, its Buddhist heritage, and the complicated textures beneath the glossy surface of official narrative. His prose moves with curiosity and candour, absorbing landscapes and sacred sites without surrendering critical intelligence.
Sen’s poetry and photography provide a stunning counterpoint. Spare, musical, and visually arresting, his couplets operate as short flashes of organic form—obsessed with colour, texture, and the sacred. His photographs of Bhutan’s prayer flags, monasteries, and mountain light carry the same lyric precision as his verse, making the book a genuinely integrated work of art.
Together, the two writers create a two-voiced, multi-modal portrait of a country at the crossroads of tradition and transformation. Bhutan is not a travel book in any conventional sense; it is a literary reckoning with place, beauty, and the stories nations tell about themselves.
PRAISE FOR BHUTAN
“Bhutan, seen through the eyes of two sensitive writers, is a unique and personal multi-genre book. Sudeep Sen’s chiselled lyric poetry alongside his evocative photography, and Ravi Shankar’s crisp prose, bring alive aspects of this country that only true artists can excavate and paint in their own signature styles.” — Shabana Azmi
“Bhutan is an elegant treasure trove that captures and displays—through Sudeep Sen and Ravi Shankar’s unique photographic and literary styles—what is special about our country.” — Dasho Kinley Dorji
“Below the glossy surface of Bhutan, ‘the happiest place on earth’ according to its government, author Ravi Shankar and poet/photographer Sudeep Sen offer a sensory travelogue … Shankar’s wit and his sceptical commentary is a foil for Sen’s delicate musical poetry. This deceptively pretty book has a two-way narrative that tracks the forward motion of experience on the road to transcendence.” — Diane Mehta
“A sheen of eudemonic delight and heightened astonished awareness adheres to this book and the two intrepid travellers who take us with them to Bhutan. Shankar’s prose account takes a loving but analytical approach to Bhutan’s claim of being the happiest country on earth, managing to explore the modernising monarchy with wit, good humour, and a broad-minded eagerness to learn. Sen’s poems and photographs are a perfect complement, giving us vivid images, both visual and poetic, to complete our grateful immersion.” — Amit Majmudar
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Ravi Shankar is the author of 18 books, including the memoir Correctional (University of Wisconsin Press). A Pushcart Prize and Glenna Luschei Prize award winner whose work has been appeared in such places as The Paris Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education and The New York Times, he teaches at Tufts University. Founding Editor-in-Chief of Drunken Boat, he has held fellowships from the Corporation of Yaddo and the MacDowell colony and lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
Sudeep Sen [www.sudeepsen.org], the author of over 25 books, is an internationally acclaimed poet, editor, and photographer whose work has appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, and major literary media across six continents. The Government of India awarded him the senior fellowship for “outstanding persons in the field of culture/literature.” Sen is the first Asian honoured to deliver the Derek Walcott Lecture and read at the Nobel Laureate Festival.
PUBLICATION DETAILS
Publisher: Drunken Boat / Fortunate Traveller Press
ISBN: 978-0-9882416-3-7
Price: $29.95
Format: Trade Paperback / Full colour
Genre: Multi-genre / Literary Travel / Poetry / Photography
Available on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/5f3f4aay
For review copies, interviews, or rights inquiries, contact: drunkenboatmagazine@gmail.com
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