Saradha is a creative activist working with poetic inquiry, visual arts, theatre, music and live arts. Born in London of Mauritian parentage, she received a Society of Authors, Eric Gregory Award for Poetry in 2004 and was named in the Guardian as one of the ‘Twelve to watch’, up and coming new generation of poets. She represented Mauritius at the Southbank Centre’s Parnassus Poetry Festival and won the Pacuare Reserve’s Poet Laureate Costa Rica residency in 2015. In 2022 she was named in Electricliterature.com ’12 Mauritian women writers you should be reading’ and was a BBC Contains Strong language poet and workshop facilitator
In 2017-18 she was the poet in ‘non’ residence on CHAGOS: Cultural Heritage Across Generations https://chagos.online. In 2019 her scraperboard artwork Chagos-nica toured as part of www.guernicaremakings.com. Sounds Like Root Shock a multidisciplinary poetic inquiry into the depopulation of the Chagos Archipelago is a lifelong multidisciplinary project.
Twice shortlisted in 2016 and 2020 for the Brunel International African Poetry Prize, a chapbook ‘In Her Deepest Sleep, Madam Lisette Talate Returns to Chagos’ is published by Akashic Books in 2021- New Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Boxset (Nane) 2021.
In Her Deepest Sleep Madame Lisette Talate Returns to Chagos Book Cover
In 2022 she was named in Electricliterature.com ’12 Mauritian women writers you should be reading’ and was a BBC Contains Strong language poet and workshop facilitator
Her reviews and essays have been published in Modern Poetry in Translation, Poetry Review and Wasafiri. Short and experimental fiction appears in Kin: Three Flavours On A Plate and Edgeways: ‘Thirteen ways to lose a Library card’ shortlisted for the Spread The Word Writing Prize. Poetry is featured in the Queer Brighton 2014, World Record 2012, Out of Bounds Anthology 2012, Red Anthology 2009, The Forward Anthology 2008, Oxford Poets Anthology 2007 and New Poetries IV, I am Twenty People! and This Little Stretch of Life.
Saradha is a passionate advocate for LGBTQI+ rights, the preservation of libraries, indigenous heritage and endangered languages. As an action learning facilitator, accredited coach and creative arts mentor Saradha enjoys nurturing the next generation of poets, artists and musicians through learning labs, seminars, creative writing workshops, coaching sessions and person centred mentoring.
She has worked as a Poetry Editor for Chroma: A Queer Literary Journal. and as a Reviews Editor and Trustee for Modern Poetry in Translation. She coproduced Chroma Journal’s LGBTQI+ Divine Mentoring Scheme and was a mentor on Spread The Word’s Flight scheme and on Encompass: a facilitators training scheme. She has worked with disabled writers and artists as part of Shape’s Link Up Mentoring Scheme and has run advanced poetry surgeries for the Arvon Foundation. Saradha is a trained Silver Arts Award Advisor and has worked on educational projects with young people as a mentor for Body and Soul and English Pen’s Speak for Yourself project and was the consultant poet on Set Poetry Free with IFBooK an online poetry schools resource with Chris Meade. Saradha has facilitated learning sessions with PHD artists at the Slade Art School and MA students at Brighton University.
Saradha is the founder of The Writing Sofa an arts and wellbeing professional development learning lab that enables clients, creative practitioners and health professionals to be authentic. Recent collaborative projects include HER INSIDE Creative Writing Workshops a collaboration with Curator Susan Croft Founder of Her Inside -Women in Lockdown. REMIT: Reimagining Health and Care: Addressing Medical and Institutional Trauma. Supporting others by sharing lived experience through peer mentoring. Supporting community projects that address the lack of opportunities for individuals who face social and cultural barriers; including disablism, racism, homophobia and ageism, homelessness and forced displacement.
CONTACT VIA EMAIL saradhasoobrayen(at)gmail.com