Joining Andy and John for this episode is the poet, novelist and dancer, Tishani Doshi. Tishani’s most recent books are Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods, published in the UK in 2017 by Bloodaxe Books, and which was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award; and a novel, Small Days and Nights, published by Bloomsbury and shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize (and which John talked about on the Defoe episode, number 91). Tishani worked for 15 years as the lead dancer with the Chandralekha group in Madras, India, a contemporary dance company using Indian forms. Born to a Welsh mother and Guajarati father, she now lives mostly on a beach in Tamil Nadu - but spends a fair bit time of wandering. She is a visiting professor of creative writing at New York University in Abu Dhabi and has a new book of poems due out with Bloodaxe in spring 2021: A God at the Door.

The book Tishani has chosen to talk about is I, Lalla: The Poems of Lal Děd – a collection of poems by the 14th century female mystic known variously as Lalla, Lal Děd, Lalleshwari, or Lal’arifa and specifically in the modern translation by the Indian poet Ranjit Hoskote published as a Penguin Classic in 2013.

In addition John has been reading Hurricane Season, the powerful novel by the Mexican author Fernanda Melchor, while Andy discusses Summer by Ali Smith, the final instalment of her seasonal quartet.

Books mentioned:

Lal Děd - I, Lalla (translated by Ranjit Hoskote)
Tishani Doshi - Girls are Coming Out of the Woods; Small Days & Nights
Ali Smith - Summer; Spring; Winter; Autumn
Fernanda Melchor - Hurricane Season
Ranjit Hotsoke - The Atlas of Lost Beliefs