Rishi Dastidar – författare

One of the Evening Standard's Best Non-fiction 2021.'We knew that black and brown bodies, working class voices, women's voices, did not have a space where they could be heard - and so this writing collective was a necessary and political act'In the early years of the new millennium, poets Malika Booker and Roger Robinson saw the need for a space for writers outside of the establishment to grow, improve, discuss and learn. One Friday night, Malika offered her Brixton kitchen table as a meeting place. And so Malika's Poetry Kitchen was born.'Kitchen', as it became known, has ushered in a new generation of voices, launching some of the most exciting writers, books and initiatives in British poetry in the past twenty years. Today, Kitchen is a thriving writers' collective, with a wealth of talented poets and branches in Chicago and India.Too Young, Too Loud, Too Different is a celebration of Kitchen's legacy, an appreciation of its foundational spirit and a rallying cry for all writers to dream the future. The collection features breathtaking new poems by Warsan Shire, Inua Ellams, Kayo Chingonyi, Dean Atta, Roger Robinson, Malika Booker among many others.

From politics to pop, from the UK to California, wherever digital heartbeats flutter and stutter, Ticker-tape is a maximalist take on 21st century living. Rishi Dastidar’s first full collection showcases one of contemporary poetry’s most distinctive voices, delivering effervescence with equal servings of panache and whiplash-quick wit.Here is sheer madcap ingenuity and also impressive breadth; ranging from odes of love to deconstructed diversity campaigns and detonations of banter’s worst excesses, plus appearances from ex-SugaBabes, a shark who comes to tea, to the matters of matchstick empires and national identity. Ticker-tape is bold, adventuresome and wry – an unmissable and irrepressible debut.

The Craft is an indispensable guide to both the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of poetic craft in the 21st century, and essential writing-desk companion for poets at all stages. The book covers practical techniques – the nuts of bolts of putting poems together, mastering poetic forms such as sonnets, sestinas, prose poems and golden shovels, how to choose titles for your poems and the art of long sequences. It also explores the idea of ‘craft’ itself - knowing how pentameters dance is important, but by no way is it the only dimension of ‘craft’ that the poet starting out today has to consider. What about sound and the skills involved in performing your work? What about truth and fabrication, and the ethics of using real life in your work? What about the politics of the word ‘craft’ itself? With essays on poetry from Moniza Alvi, Dean Atta, Liz Berry, Caroline Bird, Malika Booker, Debjani Chatterjee, Jane Commane, Rishi Dastidar, Carrie Etter, Will Harris, Tania Hershman, Peter Kahn, Gregory Leadbetter, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Roy McFarlane, Harry Man, Claire Pollard, Peter Raynard, Roger Robinson, Jacqueline Saphra, Joelle Taylor, Marvin Thompson, Julia Webb, and Antosh Wojcik.

An outcast, an outsider, an oddball. With too much ambition and not enough talent, Saffron Jack has never fitted. Now, with the feeling that his time is running out, he needs to do something drastic to change his life. So what better idea than to run away to the nearest war zone and do the thing he’s always wanted to do: start his own country and declare himself king..."A bravura meditation on crown and country, borders, and what it means to belong." - Niven Govinden“It’s exciting to see what a poet already celebrated for their high-concept execution within individual poems can achieve when they have the courage to. The wide canvas of Saffron Jack allows Dastidar to untether his imagination and uses its permutational form to gather momentum and force as it zooms in and out on the titular antihero and his doomed and self-justified quest. Urgent, caustically funny and provocative – compulsory and deeply enjoyable reading.” – Luke Kennard

In 2021, Nine Arches Press launched their nationwide Primers scheme for a sixth time, in search of exciting new voices in poetry, with Rishi Dastidar and Jane Commane as selecting editors. After reading through hundreds of anonymous entries, and narrowing down the choices from longlist to shortlist, three poets emerged as clear choices: Kym Deyn, Estelle Price and Fathima Zahra.Primers: Volume Six now brings together a showcase from each of the three poets. Startling, original and packed with flair, Deyn, Price and Zahra explore everything from magic and mourning, cross-examinations of power and patriarchy, and the intimate secrets and ‘Parent cuts’ of growing up. These are poems of becoming and being, of difference and defiance, of other worlds, hard lessons and leaps of faith. Primers is proud to present these bold and dynamic poems from three of contemporary poetry’s most exciting new voices.Praise for Primers: Volume Six“There is of course nothing more exciting in reading poetry than finding a voice new to you, and feeling that feeling – where the brain says ‘oh hello, what have we here?’, as the skin responds with a tingle and your face starts smiling as you realise, there is something special in these words. That, roughly described, was our initial sensation on seeing the work of Kym Deyn, Estelle Price and Fathima Zahra. Each, in their unique ways, have that uncanny ability to recast what you thought you knew, as they make you look then look again at who we are, how we live, and what we might be.” – Rishi Dastidar

What do you do when you are a god – but powerless and unable to prevent one of your favourite species from their insatiable, accelerating death wish? Do you try to shout louder and more insistently, or instead reinvent yourself as a troubadour of romantic ruin? Such are the dilemmas posed by Rishi Dastidar in his third poetry collection Neptune’s Projects, a reshaping of mythology for the climate crisis era which gives bold consideration to the stark choices we face.A post-apocalyptic jig and reel, these poems are compelling, deadpan yarns of the sea, full of both fury and fun. In Neptune’s Projects the end of humanity is made wry, thrilling – and alive.

Cherry Blossom at Nightbreak by Rishi Dastidar blooms with poems determined to do the generous work of love and hope – using the power of language to make change, express desire, and imagine the world as we'd like it to be. Dastidar's poems, with their deft skill in moving from the surreal to the profound, are a perfect burst of joy in challenging times, effervescent and seriously playful, romancing cityscapes and bursting with wit.POETRY BOOK OF THE MONTH, The Observer, March 2026