Salena Godden

Salena Godden is a British poet, performer and author living in London. She went to school in Hastings and moved to London in the early 1990s. She wrote about this move in her 2014 memoir Springfield Road[1] She performed poetry for the first time in 1994, this is also described in detail in Springfield Road.[2]

"Salena Godden is known for the graphic power of her work and, over time, she has fostered a reputation as one of the foremost performance poets in the UK. She crowdfunded and published Springfield Road, a memoir of her childhood, with Unbound in 2014. In addition to this, she has released two poetry collections: Fishing In The Aftermath (Burning Eye Books, 2014) and Under The Pier (Nasty Little Press, 2011). Her essay ‘Shade’ featured in the 2016 anthology The Good Immigrant (Unbound) which won the 2016 Book of the Year’s Readers’ Choice Award. Her performance of her poem ‘Titanic’ was featured in the critically acclaimed BBC spoken word programme We Belong Here, and in 2017 her album LIVEwire was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for new work in poetry. A very active writer, and a dedicated mentor, Godden regularly advises and coaches poets who are new to the spoken-word scene, while also teaching writing in schools." Poetry International Web, July 2017 [3]

Biography

In 2017 Salena Godden was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award[4][5] for new work in poetry with her live spoken word album LIVEwire released with independent spoken word label Nymphs and Thugs. LIVEwire was released in four formats: CD, digital download, full-colour zine and double LP vinyl.[5] 'New poets hailed on Ted Hughes shortlist' The Bookseller [6]

Judges: Jo Bell, Bernard O’Donoghue and Kathryn Williams praised LIVEwire: “This album captures the best of a live presence – at turns moving, powerful and unflinching – which is hard for an award to recognise. It provides a gateway to poetry that is too easily dismissed as ‘spoken word’, but is an essential part of our poetry culture.”

Her short-fiction Blue Cornflowers was shortlisted for the 2016 4th Estate and Guardian short story prize.[7] This piece was written as a response to women rights in Ireland and published in April 2017 in the Bare Lit Anthology (Brain Mill Press)[8]

Salena Godden was shortlisted for 'Best Spoken Word Performer’ in the 2017 Saboteur awards.[9] Also in 2017 Salena Godden was shortlisted for the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship.[10]

Her essay Shade was published in The Good Immigrant, This book was crowd-funded in record time and published with Unbound.[11] The Good Immigrant is a collection of 21 essays by 21 authors discussing what it means to them to tick other in 21st century Britain. It featured as a Radio 4 'Book of the Week' and won the Readers Choice Book Of The Year Award.[12] The Good Immigrant was shortlisted in the non-fiction category of The British Book Awards. The audio book and paperback of The Good Immigrant were released in May 2017.

The Good Immigrant was edited by Nikesh Shukla [13] and the 21 contributors include: Musa Okwonga (poet/broadcaster), Chimene Suleyman (poet/columnist), Vinay Patel (playwright), Bim Adewumni (Buzzfeed), Salena Godden (poet/writer), Sabrina Mahfouz (playwright), Kieran Yates (journalist), Coco Khan (journalist), Sarah Sahim (journalist), Reni Eddo Lodge (journalist), Varaidzo (student), Darren Chetty (teacher), Himesh Patel (Tamwar from Eastenders), Nish Kumar (comedian), Miss L from Casting Call Woe (actor), Daniel York Loh (playwright and actor), Vera Chok (actor/writer), Riz Ahmed (actor/rapper), Inua Ellams (poet/playwright) and Wei Ming Kam (writer).

Her latest work-in-progress Mrs Death Misses Death showcased at The Roundhouse, Last Word Festival in June 2017. This work is in development with music composed by Peter Coyte.[14] Peter Coyte and Salena Godden began collaborating in 1997.[15] They have made three albums; Saltpetre, Egg Yolk Planet Fried and Hungers The Best Sauce.[16][17]

Her short stories and poetry have also appeared in Dazed & Confused, Salzburg Review, Le Gun, Penguin's IC3, Canongate's Fire People, Serpent's Tail's Croatian Nights and Hodder & Stoughton's Oral. Godden recorded and performed in the ska-punk-breakbeat duo SaltPeter, with Peter Coyte. SaltPeter's album, Hunger's The Best Sauce was listed in The Independent on Sunday as one of the outstanding albums of 2007.[18]

Under The Pier poetry pamphlet was published by Nasty Little Press in 2011. Her work has appeared in Shortfire Press, The Dark Times, Illustrated Ape Magazine, Trespass Magazine, Paraphilia, Rising, Teller Magazine, The Mechanics' Institute Review published by Birkbeck University and Picador's Punk Fiction. Her poetry featured in the three latest anthologies from Tangerine Press entitled Dwang, hand-bound bespoke collections.

Passionate about creating platforms for new poetry and promoting underground and unpublished writers, Salena Godden hosted and produced regular live events, spoken word salons and radio shows as SaltPetre (1997-2004) and The Book Club Boutique (2007-2011) "This is a place to discover new talent and seasoned writers." wrote ''Sophie Parkin in The Guardian, April 2009. [19] " 'The Book Club Boutique throws mock wedding" [20] "The Mae West Madam of the Salon" [21]

Salena Godden features regularly on BBC award winning programmes including, The Verb, Loose Ends, Bespoken Word and on Radio 4's Saturday Live. In summer 2011 her narrative play A Valentine at Waterloo was aired as part of the BBC's Verse Illustrated series.

In the autumn 2011 she participated in the Bush Theatre's 2011 project Sixty-Six, for which she wrote a piece based on a chapter of the King James Bible.[22]

For many years Godden has championed young poets and facilitated workshops for First Story, a charity created by author William Fiennes that aims to foster and nurture literacy and creative writing in secondary schools.

Fishing in The Aftermath / Poems 1994 - 2014 a collection of more than eighty poems was published in July 2014 with Burning Eye Books. 'Springfield Road' is her literary memoir and it was successfully crowd funded and published by Unbound on 1 October 2014. Springfield Road is set in Hastings.

She wrote and presented BBC radio documentary Try A Little Tenderness – The Lost Legacy of Little Miss Cornshucks originally aired throughout May 2014 on BBC Radio 4 and then broadcast on the BBC World Service in September 2014.

Selected publishing: books and anthologies

Salena Godden books

Poetry anthologies

Short fiction and essay anthologies

Discography

References

  1. ↑ "Springfield Road by Salena Godden". Unbound. Retrieved 2017-06-30.
  2. ↑ "Fishing in the Aftermath - Poems 1994-2014 by Salena Godden". waterstones.com. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  3. ↑ http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poet/item/28543/Salena-Godden
  4. ↑ Ted Hughes Award – The Poetry Society
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Nymphs & Thugs - Independent spoken word record label". Nymphs & Thugs - Independent spoken word record label. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  6. ↑ Child, Lee (2017-03-09). "New poets hailed on Ted Hughes Award shortlist". The Bookseller. Retrieved 2017-06-30.
  7. ↑
  8. ↑ "Salena Godden - Brain Mill Press". brainmillpress.com. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  9. ↑ Editor (3 April 2017). "Saboteur Awards 2017 – The Shortlist and Longlist". sabotagereviews.com. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  10. ↑ "Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowships - Jerwood Charitable Foundation". jerwoodcharitablefoundation.org. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  11. ↑ "The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla". Unbound. Retrieved 2017-06-30.
  12. ↑ "The Good Immigrant crowned Britain's favourite book of 2016 - The Bookseller". thebookseller.com. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  13. ↑ "The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla". Unbound. Retrieved 2017-06-30.
  14. ↑ "Mrs Death Misses Death -". roundhouse.org.uk. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  15. ↑ "Peter Coyte". petercoyte.com. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  16. ↑ "Salena Saliva Godden". discogs. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  17. ↑ "Peter Coyte". discogs. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  18. ↑ "Tibor Jones.". tiborjones.com. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  19. ↑ "Expert's and reader's tips: London literary nights | Travel". The Guardian. Retrieved 2017-06-30.
  20. ↑ "Feature: Event - The Book Club Boutique Wedding (Friday July 2), 7.30pm - House of St Barnabas | Islington Tribune". Archive.islingtontribune.com. 2010-07-01. Retrieved 2017-06-30.
  21. ↑ "Salena Godden | For Books’ Sake". Forbookssake.net. 2014-12-28. Retrieved 2017-06-30.
  22. ↑ "Salena Godden – The Chronicles in response to 1 Chronicles". Bush Theatre. Archived from the original on 27 May 2014. Retrieved 26 May 2013.
  23. ↑ "Feature: Books - Under The Pier. By Salena Godden - West End Extra". archive.westendextra.com. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
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