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This interview with Anjan Saha was first published in May 2006. Where were you born and raised? London born and raised. West London has always been my neck of the woods. What was it that first got you into writing and when did you start writing? Writing has always been my expression; I have scrawls in diaries going back to when I was a child. I remember writing stories as a child on our visits to India and reading them out to family members gathered round with the candles lit due to the frequent power cuts. I understood early on that stories were a magical place and a real a place as any. After that I remember writing poems and ideas down furiously in my white lab coat in the chemistry department tea room at Manchester University. It wasn’t long after I graduated that I set up a literary night of poetry and music at the Riverside Studios in 1996. It was here that I was exposed to many writers, musicians and artists that shaped my artistic practice. With my colleague we took it on ourselves to set up a literary magazine called the Riverside Poetry Review. So you could say that I have been really writing since the mid nineties. Which writers have influenced you the most? It would be anywhere on the spectrum from Raymond Carver, Rabrindranath Tagore, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, R. K. Narayan, James Baldwin to the lyrics of Gil Scott Heron, Bob Marley and Dylan. I am moved by any writer that can take an idea, a place, a person and create something that is greater than the sum of its parts, which ceases to be language but becomes its own music and lead the reader to some kind of realisation. That sounds rather noble but I really feel that language is a type of codex which the great writers utilise but at the same time go beyond. Where do you stand on the nature v. nurture debate? Were you born a writer, or were there factors in your environment that enabled you to become a writer? Well, I wasn’t a born footballer,if you’re asking. Could I have been, who knows? If I had a will to be, perhaps. There are many studies on how the brain processes the world and how creativity can be fostered. Maybe one should refer to that. From my viewpoint you have to believe in writing, live and breathe it. So would it help to have people around you where people believe in it also? Yes. Where there are arts centres for readings? Well yes. But at the same time if you can interpret the world through words and are supported early on then you stand a better chance of continuing down that path. There has to something natural in you to want to represent the world through stories and people to nurture that! So, both I guess. What made you decide to become a tablapoet? I have been blessed to study the tabla (North Indian Classical hand drums) from my Guru, the great maestro Pandit Sharda Sahai-jee. Through learning about the structure of Indian music and spoken word syllables it was just a natural progression to bring the language of English together with the percussive language into something that was truly universal. One has to be careful because the tabla tradition goes back a long way and many of the compositions have their own power, if I can say that. So you have to be respectful towards the tradition and work within in it to present something that is contemporary and speaks to audiences. I have a long way to go but it is an amazing journey to be on. With my band Lost Luggage, I am able to deliver poetry in a way that I can play off the other musicians that is musical. So I can set words and ideas against tabla, double bass and clarinet. All my band members are superbly talented and I am really lucky to be working with them in this way. How does it feel for you to read one of your poems to an audience? To be able to connect with an audience member through oratory is a wonderful thing. Especially if they see pictures in their mind’s eye (not necessarily the ones you had in mind) and it sets off memories of their own. That’s when you have done your job. As well as being a poet, you’ve been employed to do various roles in arts administration. What’s the best part of this work for you? Working with artists and organisations to develop programmes is fantastic. Especially when a vision you had in mind becomes a reality you have to pinch yourself. I remember promoting CrossCurrents for the Arts Council and feeling great that all these artists from different disciplines were performing under one banner to make an impact. You’re renowned for being a performance poet, but I see that you also write short stories. What kinds of short stories have you written so far, and where can we read them? I write short stories on anything from train travels, hairdressers to the arts scene. I am looking to get them out now. I have a series of short stories on the musical traditions of India for which I am looking for a publisher. So, keep a lookout for that. What’s the best piece of feedback you’ve had about your writing? I remember at an Arvon Writing retreat in a lodge on a hill in Inverness, the writer Alan Spence said he liked a bit of one of my stories. That was enough for me. He’s a great writer, very sparse and meditative. Do you have a homepage? If so, what’s the URL? I do indeed www.anjansaha.com |
