Writing Britain Now: Nick Makoha in conversation with Roger Robinson
On the occasion of the publication of Roger Robinson’s A Portable Paradise on 12 July, our writer-in-residence, Nick Makoha sat down to speak with the author about the book, his working methods and his views on poetry.
Robinson first published in Wasafiri Special Issue 74: 'Brighter Suns: Sixty Years of Literature from Trinidad' in 2013, and subsequently served as the poetry judge for the Wasafiri New Writing Prize 2015. A Portable Paradise is Robinson’s fourth collection. Blending pop culture, history, nature writing, mythology, art, and socio-political commentary, the collection aims to illustrate the suffering of contemporary life; its title, in Robinson’s words ‘pointing to the philosophy that the poems express: that earthly joy is, or ought to be, just within, but is often just beyond our reach.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwapmsi3H9w
With sequences that interrogate the Grenfell Tower tragedy and the Windrush deportations scandal, A Portable Paradise explores the human experiences that underly both events as it reflects on just what paradise might be. Watch Robinson read an excerpt below.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuk-MA1FY8w&feature=youtu.be
A Portable Paradise is published by Peepal Tree Press and available to purchase now.