Malika Booker is a British writer and multidisciplinary artist of Guyanese and Grenadian Parentage. Her poems have been widely published in anthologies and journals including Wasafiri, The Penguin Anthology of New Black Writing, and Ten New Poets (Bloodaxe, 2010). He CV is full of writerly activity, and we're lucky enough to have her teaching for us in the Spring Term on a course 'Mapping Poetries', the idea for which came out of a Poetry School workshop that Malika took as a student.
She has been a Writer in Residence for Hampton Court Palace, Croydon
Museum and The Center for Slovenian Literature as well as an Arts
Council Fellow at The India International Centre in Delhi, and has
represented British writing internationally, both independently and with
the British Council in Slovenia, New Zealand, Malaysia, India, Russia
and Azerbaijan. Her
collection Breadfruit was published by flippedeye in 2007, and was recommended by the Poetry Book Society. She is currently working on her
first full length collection. Here, she talks to us about Malika's Kitchen, geographical hybrids and her next collection.
Tell me a bit more about Malika’s Kitchen and how it felt to hit double figures this year.
Malika's Poetry Kitchen is a writer's collective that I founded in 2001 with Roger Robinson and Jacob Sam La Rose. The initial meetings took place in my home for over three years. Writers would meet every Friday from 7pm - 9.30pm to write. MPK is all about the Craft of poetry, we wanted to encourage new writers to focus on their craft of writing for the page. The idea was to create a community of writers who would meet religiously to develop their craft in a supportive environment. Some of our members have included poets like: Aoife Mannix, Inua Ellams, Dorothea Smartt and Nii Parkes. We have had guest tutors like Karen McCarthy Woolf, Fred D' Aguiar, Kwame Dawes and Bernardine Evaristo, as well as a published pamphlet called 'Handmade Fire' and a book length anthology 'A Storm Between Fingers.' Two of our greatest achievements were: the fact that we had a Chicago branch of the MKP for over four years and that I was consulted by a group of writers in India so that they could start their own writers group (supported by The British Council) modelled on the principles of MPK.
When we began Malika's Poetry Kitchen we had no idea that it would last ten years, we also did not imagine the impact it would have on London poetry and the quality poets who would go on to publish, win prizes, pursue creative writing degrees or that it would succeed in creating a multicultural group of writers who would also go out and take poetry school courses and retreats and bring their learning back to the group.
Malika's
Poetry Kitchen survives because of the devotion and commitment of the Writers
who have attended and continue to attend and support each other throughout it's
ten years. Our Director Jill Abram is the current driving force behind it's
continual existence and she follows a long line of motivated leaders who have
worked to tirelessly to make MKP happen like: Esther Poyer, Nick Makoha,
Sifundo Msebele, Roger Robinson and Jacob Sam La Rose.
You are both a teacher and a student at the Poetry School. Do you feel that, as a writer, one never stops learning and should always actively engage with workshops and writing courses?
A
writer's vocation is to constantly learn more about their craft in what ever
way that they can. One of the best ways to know and understand not only writing
but the industry is to meet with other writers. Workshops and courses allow you
to expand your knowledge of poetry with the added bonus of making friends and
contacts. At the moment I still attend two of Mimi Khalvati's Advanced Seminar
groups and both serve to expand my knowledge of poetry as well as challenge me
continuously and this is vital to me as a writer. Last year I remember
attending a one day translation course taught by W.N Herbert (I must say that
I have no intention of doing translations of poetry any time soon). I was
intrigued by the subject matter, not sure how this course would impact on my
own writing. It was so necessary as it broadened my own knowledge in a way that
i had not expected. Herbert encouraged me to think about translation
beyond language. He challenged me to begin thinking of the hybrid of geographies
that could influence a poet's writings and the translations that they have to
make if they are straddling nationalities, identities, locations, heritage
etc. That translation course took me on my own journey into exploring this in
my work as well as other poets and is the driving force for 'Mapping Poetries', the course that I will be teaching for the Poetry School in the spring
term.
What are you planning for next year? Projects? Books? Teaching?
Next year will be a very exciting and busy year for me. I have a deadline to send my poetry manuscript off to my editor at the beginning of January and I am already exploring themes and ideas for the next book. I will be teaching for both English PEN and City Lit, as well as mentoring / coaching new and emerging writers. My first one woman show, 'Absolution', will be published in an anthology of Plays by Oberon Books Limited next year. But the two most important things that I am looking forward to are:
1) I have been the first Poet in Residence at The Royal Shakespeare Company and next year will see the launch of the poems written as part of that Residency. This will take place in Stratford and promises to be very exciting indeed
2) I will be teaching 'Mapping Poetries' at the Poetry School in spring. It is a subject that I am very passionate about and I cannot wait to explore the fantastic array of poets we will be studying through out the course.
