Tishani Doshi Readings
'A God at the Door is angry yet playful, wide-reaching in its considerations, yet laser focused in its detailing. The judges enjoyed its riches and its rebellion. moving between traditional verse forms and innovative new presentations, each executed with stunning technical fluidity. This remarkable collection is published by Bloodaxe.' - Forward Prize Judges
Poet, novelist and dancer Tishani Doshi launched her fourth collection A God at the Door with a series of virtual readings organised by UK and Irish festivals. She read at StAnza, Mountains to Sea, Cardiff Poetry Festival and Cúirt International Festival of Literature ahead of UK publication on 22 April 2021, and at Swindon Festival of Literature in May. A film of her joint Bloodaxe launch event on 20 April 2021 can be seen below, along with a stunning filmed reading she made for the Coronet Inside Out series.
In 2018 Tishani toured the UK and Ireland with readings and dance/spoken word performances for her third collection Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods, a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. The collection and her accompanying dance performance were shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry 2018.
Her previous two collections were Everything Begins Elsewhere, published by Bloodaxe in 2012, and her debut, Countries of the Body (Aark Arts) winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Her second novel, Small Days and Nights (Bloomsbury, 2019) was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize.
A God at the Door was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2021.
Tishani Doshi was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in July 2023.
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Tishani Doshi was guest on Radio 3's The Verb recorded at the Hay Festival, where she read in May 2022. The Verb at Hay was broadcast on 3 June at 10pm. Listen here.
Tishani was featured in Ars Notoria, along with three poems from her fourth collection A God at the Door. Illustrated with photos of Tishani dancing the piece she devised to accompany her 2018 Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods tour. Read the Poet of Honour feature here.
Ahead of her event at Mountains to Sea festival on 27 March 2021, Tishani shared her Life in Books with Ireland's Sunday Independent. Read the feature here.
Tishani Doshi was interviewed on the BBC World Service's The Cultural Frontline on 27 March about the interplay between dance and poetry in her creative work. Listen here (2nd item).
A God at the Door was reviewed in The Guardian's best recent poetry round-up for April 2021 here and in the Times Literary Supplement's poetry round-up here.
Two stunning shaped poems from the collection are featured in Bookanista here to mark publication on 22 April 2021
Tishani's poem 'Species' from A God at the Door was read and discussed by Irish poet Pádraig Ó Tuama on the US Poetry Unbound podcast of 8 October 2021. Listen here.
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FILMS WITH TISHANI DOSHI
Manchester Literature Festival, November 2021
Tishani Doshi in conversation with Mona Arshi
Tishani Doshi: A God at the Door
‘The point of hunger/is to remind you to live.’ Award-winning Indian poet Tishani Doshi joins us to share poems from her exquisite, inventive, insightful and often playful new collection A God at the Door. She discusses her work and imagination; the urgency of writing about injustice, inequality and climate change, and the role Human Rights and feminism play in her life as a poet and person with fellow poet and Human Rights lawyer Mona Arshi.
This pre-recorded Vimeo digital event. event was presented in partnership with Ripples of Hope Festival and ends with a stunning short film of the commission Tishani wrote responding to Article 6: Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Click here to view the film.
PAST READINGS AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE
Tuesday 20th July 2021, 6pm to 7pm, GemArts Masala Festival & Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts
'A God at the Door': Tishani Doshi reading and in conversation with John Challis
Award-winning poet and dancer, Tishani Doshi gave an online reading for NCLA and the GemArts Masala Festival on 20 July 2021 . Born in Madras, India, Tishani is of Welsh-Gujarati descent and has published four collections of poetry and two novels. Her first collection, Countries of the Body, won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and her most recent novel, Small Days and Nights (Bloomsbury, 2019), was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize.
Tishani was reading from her fourth collection, A God at the Door (Bloodaxe, 2021), a collection of poems that bestows power on the powerless, deploys beauty to heal trauma, and enables the voices of the oppressed to be heard with piercing clarity. From flightless birds and witches, to black holes and Marilyn Monroe, A God at the Door illuminates with lines and images that surprise, inflame and dazzle.
After her reading, Tishani was in conversation about her poetry with John Challis, Research Associate at Newcastle University, and author of The Resurrectionists (Bloodaxe, 2021). A fascinating and deeply thoughtful discussion. A video of this hour-long event is below.
Tishani Doshi in conversation with John Challis at the GemArts Masala Festival on 20 July 2021.
Tishani was reading from her Forward Prize-shortlisted collection A God at the Door and was in conversation with fellow Bloodaxe poet John Challis. 'Poems are so small but they have the possibility to work with such incredible scale' - Tishani Doshi
Wednesday 28 April 2021, Coronet Inside Out series, Coronet Theatre, Notting Hill, London
For Coronet Inside Out poet, novelist and dancer Tishani Doshi recorded these poems from Kodaikanal, a hill station in Tamil Nadu, from her fourth collection, A God at the Door, published by Bloodaxe Books on 22 April 2021. She says:
‘What I love about the Coronet is its sense of intimacy and other-worldliness. When you pass through the doors — whether it’s into the bar or to the theatre, there’s a sense of crossing over a threshold and entering into a different space – where you are connected with strangers, where transformations can happen. Most of the poems in my fourth collection, A God at the Door (Bloodaxe), have to do with this idea of connection and intimacy. For me the two touchstones are language and the body, the idea that any pilgrimage must lead back to ourselves, our bodies, but that we are in this together. Poems are bridges, they can connect our personal losses to public grief, they can also offer glimpses of beauty, humour & hope.’ – Tishani Doshi
Tishani Doshi will be reading in person at the Coronet Theatre on 14 May 2022.
Tuesday 20 April 2021, Bloodaxe Books poetry online, joint launch with Tishani Doshi, Dom Bury & Jenna Clake
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Poet and dancer Tishani Doshi toured the UK and Ireland in 2018 with readings and dance/spoken word performances for her third collection Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods, a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. She devised the twenty-minute dance piece herself, and performed it to a recording of her reading the title poem (see film below). Tishani danced for many years with the renowned choreographer Chandralekha, with whom she performed internationally.
Tishani Doshi kicked off her UK & Irish tour with an interview on Radio 4's Front Row on Monday 21 May 2018. Listen here.
Read an interview with Tishani on the Bookanista website here.
Tishani Doshi dances Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods at the Dylan Thomas Birthplace
Tishani Doshi performs her dance version of ‘Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods’ in the Dylan Thomas Birthplace, Swansea, in July 2018. Filmed by Gareth M Davies (www.seebehindthemoon.com). Poem read by her with music composed by Luca Nardon (www.lucanardon.it).
[08 February 2021]
