John Siddique, whose work has been the subject of a number of posts at Writing Without Paper, is a poet of witness. He writes poetry that matters about life experiences and events that matter. Recently, John wrote and filmed "The End of Mango Season", which he calls a "poetic meditation". Inspired by the rape and hanging of two girls, cousins, ages 12 and 14, in Uttar Pradesh, India, "The End of Mango Season" is a deeply thoughtful piece of writing, distinguished by its clarity of message, its insight into who we are as human beings, and especially its profound feeling for the murder victims.
Background
Among John's books are the poetry collections Full Blood (Salt Publishing, 2011) and Recital - An Almanac (Salt Publishing, 2009) and the memoir Four Fathers. His work has appeared in Granta, The Guardian, and The Rialto and on BBC Radio 4. Currently, he is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at York St. John University.
Among John's books are the poetry collections Full Blood (Salt Publishing, 2011) and Recital - An Almanac (Salt Publishing, 2009) and the memoir Four Fathers. His work has appeared in Granta, The Guardian, and The Rialto and on BBC Radio 4. Currently, he is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at York St. John University.
John Siddique's Black Coffee & A Glass of Water (Blog)
Review of Full Blood at Writing Without Paper (Also see Reader's Guide and my essay "Monday Muse on the 'One Hundred' Poems".)
Review of Recital at Writing Without Paper
John Siddique Profiles at Salt Publishing | Authors and Moving Manchester | Writers' Gallery
John Siddique at Moving Poems
Posts
2 comments:
Thank you Maureen you are the best...
and thank you all who take a few minutes to take a look at the video.
John
Beautiful and heartbreaking. It fits so well with my last couple of blog posts on "bearing witness." A topic I ponder often, how we "bear" equally the beauty and brutality in the world, that such beautiful girls live so joyfully in this world and are taken so brutally and senselessly. I'd heard of his book before, and now I know I will read it. Thank you for sharing.
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