Poetry
Reading, conversation with Debjani Chatterjee and Book Launch of her Smiling at Leopards at the Kimberlin
Library, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, on 22nd November
2018
Debjani Chatterjee has been called a
poet 'full of wit and charm' (Andrew Motion). She grew up in India, Japan,
Bangladesh, Hong Kong, and Egypt, before settling in England. She has worked in
industry, teaching, community relations and arts psychotherapy. An international poet, children’s writer,
translator, Olympic torchbearer and storyteller; her awards include an MBE,
Sheffield Hallam University's honorary doctorate, and Word Masala's Lifetime
Achievement in Poetry Award. A former Chair of the National Association of Writers
in Education and the Arts Council's Translation Panel, she is a Patron of
Survivors Poetry, a Writing Project Associate, and Royal Literary Fellow at
Leicester’s De Montfort University. She has held numerous poetry residencies,
including at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, the Ilkley Literature Festival, London’s
Barbican Centre, and various universities. Her 65+ books include: Namaskar: New and Selected Poems, Animal
Antics, and Do You Hear the Storm Sing? More at www.dchatterjeewriter.simplesite.com
Goutam
Karmakar: Hello! Debjani-di. Thanks for inviting me to De Montfort University.
I am extremely happy to meet you in person.
Debjani
Chatterjee: Welcome to De
Montfort, to Leicester, and to England on this chilly November evening, Goutam!
After corresponding for some years, how good to meet you face-to-face.
(Captured
while this conversation is going on, at Debjani Chatterjee’s office at De
MontFort University, Leicester, UK)
Goutam
Karmakar: This exclusive section is for our SETU:
A Bilingual and Peer-Reviewed Journal of Literature, Arts and Culture
(Pittsburgh, USA). You know that Dr. Sunil Sharma runs that journal. He has
published you also in e-zines. SETU
has published many contemporary Indian-born British poets. Don’t you think that
more journals like SETU should come
forward to give space to new voices?
Debjani
Chatterjee: Literary
magazines and journals exist for the sake of their readers, and readers deserve
the best and most exciting literature that editors can present. Editors also
have a duty to writers; they are like literary gate-keepers in their role of
selecting the work of some writers and rejecting that of others. Editors who
only open doors for an exclusive and limited group of writers who are perhaps
their friends, are short-changing both their readers and the talented writers
who are denied publication. So, yes, I do agree that new voices should be given
a chance. They should have a chance also to have their work sit alongside that
of established writers. But of course editors have their own tastes too and
know what kind of literature they like. Though I would hope that they can be
open and flexible, a certain amount of subjectivity in their choice is
inevitable.
Goutam
Karmakar: Today here at Kimberlin Library we have thoroughly enjoyed the poetry
reading and the discussion of Diaspora and Indian Poetry in English. What kind
of importance does the poetry reading hold for you?
Debjani
Chatterjee: I do enjoy
poetry readings – both listening to others and reading my own work. Every
reading, I feel, should be a celebration of poetry. I am glad that, complementing
the launch of my latest pamphlet, you too could read a selection of poems from
the new anthology that you are compiling. Occasions like today’s event, in which
the reading is to listeners who have not heard British Indian poetry before, is
so important. It is important because it gives poetry lovers, and even those
who may be unsure about poetry but are curious, an opportunity to glimpse new
literary delights, new perspectives and insights into human experience.
(Captured while the
poetry reading session is going on)
Goutam
Karmakar: Let us move on to your new book Smiling
at Leopards. I am fortunate enough to find myself participating in this
book launch at DMU. The title of your publication appeals to me. What is the
reason behind choosing this title for it?
Debjani
Chatterjee: Smiling at Leopards gets its title from a poem of that name. It is a
poem in which I poke gentle fun at myself and others who practice mindfulness
meditation. I hope that readers will find the title intriguing and will wish to
explore further.
(Front
cover of Smiling at Leopards)
Goutam
Karmakar: Only six poems are there in this slim chapbook. Hedgehog Press (UK) have
done an excellent job of the production. Do you have any particular reason for
publishing this?
Debjani
Chatterjee: Hedgehog Press
bring out a book-length poetry magazine and also a series of small poetry samplers,
which Mark Davidson the commissioning editor calls ‘Sticklebacks’ after the
tiny fish of that name. Out of the blue, I received an invitation from Mark to
submit poems, both for the magazine and for Stickleback IV. I had just been putting a collection together
and was wondering where to send it. A small pamphlet was not what I had in
mind, but I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth! I could always send a
small sampler, I reasoned, while still considering a publisher for my latest
full collection.
Goutam
Karmakar: If I ask you to choose one poem from this booklet, then which poem would
you choose, and why?
Debjabi
Chatterjee: It’s a difficult
question as I purposely made sure that my sampler would have very diverse poems
– both long and short. ‘Smiling at Leopards’ is probably my favourite piece in
the pamphlet. But I’d choose ‘Pub Angelica’ as a more representative poem. It
has a tightly knit structure with couplets that use a refrain – not, as you
would expect, at the end of lines but at the beginning of the second line. The
subject matter of mortality is one that many poets have addressed – and I
tackle it in this final one in my sampler and also, to some extent, in my
opening poem ‘Choice’. My interest in Sufi lore and poetry is evident from ‘Pub
Angelica’. In fact, an incident that I refer to from the life of the Persian
poet Hakim Sanai, is also one that I’ve retold in an earlier prose book: Sufi Stories from Around the World
(HarperCollins India).
(Holding
‘Do You Hear The Storm Sing?’, another beautiful poetry collection of Debjani
Chatterjee)
Goutam
Karmakar: Poems like ‘Heirlooms’ and ‘Purple Harvest’ show Indianness in a
vivid way. How far has Bengali culture, norms and Indian ethos influenced you
while composing these pieces?
Debjani
Chatterjee: Actually,
‘Heirlooms’ and ‘Purple Harvest’, like most of the poems in this pamphlet,
reflect the cultural influences of both East and West. ‘Choice’ is the most
explicit in describing ‘a fusion’: ‘Multiple personalities are mine,/ and
Joseph’s rainbow coat – and his brothers’./ Both Rama and Ravana possess
me./... I am a poet, I choose to choose all.’ The women who inspired
‘Heirlooms’ were people whom I met at a workshop in Firth Park, a very
multi-ethnic part of Sheffield, women who originated from places as diverse as
Scotland, Iran and Pakistan. ‘Purple Harvest’ describes my Sheffield garden’s ‘luscious
clusters’ of blackberries each summer. I pick the fruit and my Ma makes chutney
– Bengali-style - and my husband Brian makes jam and crumbles. I am lucky in
that I get to enjoy all these delicious gifts of East and West!
(Captured
while I was receiving the gifts (Poetry collections of Debjani didi) from
Debjani Chatterjee)
Goutam
Karmakar: Didi, it’s already 7.30 p.m. - let’s start walking. Thanks for this
conversation with all its insights into your poetry, and special thanks for
gifting me signed copies of many of your poetry books. Hope we’ll meet again.
Stay safe; and do keep enriching us.
Debjani
Chatterjee: Yes, the De
Montfort staffs need to clear this room. And you must be hungry. The Shivalli
restaurant is just nearby - its masala dhosas are as good as anything in India.
We must celebrate our first meeting and the success of this evening’s poetry
event. I too hope we’ll meet again – in England and in India.
(Before
leaving De MontFort University… And ‘the masala dhosas’ are waiting for us at
The Shivalli restaurant)
Goutam Karmakar is currently
working as an Assistant Professor at the Department of English, Barabazar
Bikram Tudu Memorial College, Sidhu-Kanhu-Birsha University, West Bengal,
India. He is also a PhD Research Scholar at the Department of Humanities and
Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology Durgapur (NITD), India.
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