An honour to interview picture book author Kyo Maclear as part of the #KidLit4Ceasefire fundraiser, published in Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature from IBBY.
In June I had the absolute joy of interviewing poet Daljit Nagra at the ARC book festival, thanks to the lovely organiser Puneet Bhandal, author of the Bollywood Academy series. Daljit read from his wonderful latest collection Yiewsley – especially poignant as we were just down the road and several Yiewsley locals attended!
It was amazing to be in conversation with Rishi Dastidar for 26 Writers about his latest book Cherry Blossom at Nightbreak and my pamphlet Empirical.
STUDENT BMJ
I had a wonderful time discussing creativity, writing & medicine with my brilliant ex-student and Student BMJ editor Zaynah!
BREATHE MAGAZINE
Read my top tips on writing poetry in ‘Breathe’ magaine here
SAILFEST
I wrote about failure – all part of the process for writers & scientists – on the SailFest blog here
SailFest aims to link South Asian authors, illustrators and poets writing for children and teens with peers, publishers people and book influencers – for more information, visit https://www.sailfest.org.uk
WRITE BEYOND BORDERS
I’ve enjoyed taking part in the https://writebeyondborders.co.uk mentoring scheme with brilliant Sri Lankan poet Madri Kalugala. Mentee Zahra Mayeesha kindly wrote up my tips on editing for their masterclass series here
POETRY BIRMINGHAM
I really enjoyed this collaborative call-and-response prose piece ‘At the Shoreline’ written by myself and fellow Kinara poets Sarala Estruch and Rushika Wick for the fabulous Poetry Birmingham here
SYNAPSIS
I wrote about Lonely Castle in the Mirror, Covid-19, isolation and young people’s mental health through the idea of the ‘chronotope’ or ‘impossible worlds’ of literature for SYNAPSIS here
A recent exploration of the lyric essay as illness narrative is up on SYNAPSIS here
I looked at the works of artists with lived experience of illness in the context of the medical gaze at SYNAPSIS here
THE POLYPHONY
My review of Breast Cancer Inside Out: Bodies, Biographies, Beliefs (Ed. Kimberley Myers) on The Polyphony
I reviewed ‘Arrival at Elsewhere’, a book-length collaborative poem compiled from work written during the first few months of UK lockdown at The Polyphony
WRITERS & ARTISTS
I loved writing about building alternate worlds for Pen To Print and Writers & Artists. You can read the article here: https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/advice/how-write-alternate-worlds
I presented my work on Anne Boyer’s ‘The Undying’ at the Contemporary Womxn’s Writing and the Medical Humanities Conference in the summer of 2021.
I chose a few of my favourite books of magic realism for children over at BOOKDNA. You can read it here
I really enjoyed listing a few of my favourite mythic retellings beyond the Greco-Roman canon. You can read my recommendations here
Gita Ralleigh 