By Team GRB
GRB: Hi Daljit, thank you for taking the time to speak to the GRB. Could we start by asking you to tell us a bit about yourself and your practice to date?
Daljit Nagra (DN): I come from a working class migrant background, my parents are from India and came over in the late 1950s. I was the first poet of colour published by Faber & Faber from a first collection back in 2007. My five books are published by Faber and include three individual collections, a version of the India epic Ramayana and my recent book is a long dramatic poem, indiom, which explores Indian-English and how it might continue as an exciting and exuberant language for the future. I’ve tried to make this a witty book which foregrounds lively play of language.
GRB: What are you looking forward to, as part of your appearance at this year’s StAnza International Poetry Festival?
DN: I love the standard of poets at StAnza, having read there a few times before, I enjoy going around the venues and hearing the many exciting poets selected to perform their work. Also, my wife will be coming along with me, and we had our first date 20 years ago on the weekend of my performance, we went to an exhibition of paintings by Vuillard at Tate Modern. This time, I’ll make her come and watch me and Leontia Flynn perform our poetry.
GRB: You have run poetry workshops all over the world. What did you learn from this experience that you’ve found to be applicable to your own work?
DN: I love running workshops, reading the work and giving feedback. I often find myself giving editorial advice that I may have been neglecting in my own work, so this process tightens up my critical skills for my own work. New poets almost always inspire me to do better, when they’re work is good – I always feel I need to try harder, so it keeps me on my toes.
GRB: One challenge that poets (especially those from less-advantaged backgrounds) often encounter, is the struggle to find time for their own practice alongside paying work – what advice would you give someone, about how you stay productive and creative in your own writing, while also teaching and fulfilling a number of other roles? How do you prioritise?
DN: This is a problem I had when I started writing. I had to have a full-time job. Luckily, poetry allows itself to be written around the mill of ordinary pursuits. I used to write on buses and trains or when I had spare time at home. I’d always have several poetry books ready to be read, and critical books about my favourite classical poets to read – these help with generating new ideas.
GRB: The UK’s poetry ‘ecosystem’ offers more practical, career support to poets who are younger in age (rather than just at an early stage in their writing careers) – this will often constrain access and opportunities for writers from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, single parents etc. What more should be done to support poets who come to writing later in life, as you did at the age of 30?
DN: I was given a mentor for a year by the South Bank in London and that was transformative for me. I’d wish the same for others, supportive feedback partly to build up confidence. We working class people don’t feel entitled and I certainly expected failure as a poet. At the Royal Society of Literature, of which I’m the Chair, we’re doing loads of work to help writers from disadvantaged backgrounds, and I implore other arts organizations to do the same, and to not regard diversity as a token but as a call to action.
GRB: Your poem (‘We’re Lighting Up The Nation’) which you contributed to the BBC’s coverage of the Coronation Concert celebrating the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth, refers to “monuments for Scott and Burns”, are there other Scottish poets who inspire you, or whose work you especially admire? If so whom, and why?
DN: I love many Scottish poets, the older generations, George Mackay Brown for his precision and his myth making, newer exciting performers such as Michael Pedersen who is so witty and playful with diction, and of course poets such as Kathleen Jamie and Jackie Kay who write of ordinary experiences and the environment.
GRB: In 2020, you were appointed Chair of the Royal Society of Literature. How does an institution like the RSL (which presumably must speak with one voice, and take an agreed, single position on matters) navigate the escalating polarisation of today’s discourse – where different, often conflicting voices and points of view are empowered by social media to grow louder and more powerful?
DN: This is difficult because some Fellows want us to be political but we have 700 Fellows all with strong opinions. We choose to remain politically neutral so authors can speak for themselves, and so we can do our amazing work. We have 10 literary prizes now, we have a more robust and transparent election process for new Fellows, we run over 25 literary events each year and our outreach programme includes authors inspiring children in state schools and people in prison.
GRB: Fellows of the RSL must have produced at least two “works of outstanding literary merit” – a phrase which some people feel comes freighted with historical, cultural and colonial baggage – how might readers and writers separate ‘merit’ in the literature they seek out?
DN: The RSL doesn’t define literary excellence so our specialist committee that considers new Fellows for the election process will have to decide excellence of authors on a case by case basis.
GRB: Lastly, what projects or writing do you have in the pipeline, that you’d like our readers to know about and look our for?
DN: On Radio 4 Extra I present a programme, Poetry Extra, 52 weeks a year and every year. It’s on for 30 mins every Sunday and it’s on the iPlayer for a month. Across our four episodes in March we’re featuring the original recordings of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath.
GRB: Thanks so much for speaking with us and answering these questions! We hope you have a great time at StAnza 2024.
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