Daljit Nagra

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Daljit Nagra is a British [1] poet whose debut collection, Look We Have Coming to Dover! — a title alluding to W. H. Auden's Look, Stranger!, D. H. Lawrence's Look! We have come through! and by epigraph also to Matthew Arnold's 'Dover Beach' — was published by Faber in February 2007. His poems relate to the experience of British-born Indians (especially Indian Sikhs), and often employ language that imitates the English spoken by Indian immigrants whose first language is Punjabi, which some have termed 'Punglish'.[2] He is currently an English teacher at the Jews' Free School, Kingsbury.

His influences have been cited as including William Blake and Paul Muldoon, but also singers such as Paul Weller and Ray Davies.[3] His work has been published in The Rialto, Poetry London and Poetry Review. In 2004 he won the Forward Poetry Prize for best single poem for 'Look We Have Coming to Dover!'. Nagra's debut collection, which takes the same title, has received extremely positive reviews, has been featured on television and radio, including the prominent BBC programme Newsnight Review,[4] and won the 2007 Forward Poetry Prize for best first collection.[5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Born about 40 years ago: BBC World Service profile, broadcast 31 December 2007 (accessed 1 January 2008).
  2. ^ Do you speak Punglish?, BBC Online, 29 September 2005, accessed 26 August 2007
  3. ^ Patrick Barkham, The bard of Dollis Hill, The Guardian, 18 January 2007, accessed 20 January 2007
  4. ^ Literature: Daljit Nagra 'Look We Have Coming to Dover!', Newsnight Review, 19 January 2007, accessed 20 January 2007
  5. ^ John Ezard, Guardian award highlights good year for first-time writers, The Guardian, 24 August 2007, accessed 26 August 2007

[edit] External links

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