We discuss her collection, Doing the Most with the Least, on the Granta Podcast.
‘don’t be / shocked when I say I was in prison you’re still in prison that’s / what this land means prison.’
In this episode, Josie Mitchell talks to Momtaza Mehri about her poetry pamphlet, Doing the Most with the Least, out with Goldsmiths Shorts.
They discuss the value of self-interrogation, the significance of the Black Arts Movement and the limits to checking your privilege.
You can read Momtaza’s poetry and essays on our website. And her recent essay in the Guardian, ‘Anti-racism requires so much more than checking your privilege’, can be found here.
‘I alone know a running stream
that is recovery partly and dim sweat
of a day-fever’
A poem by Rowan Evans.
‘Humour is a thread we hang onto. It punctures through the fog of guilt.’
Momtaza Mehri in conversation with Warsan Shire.
‘Something shifted in me that night. A small voice in my head said, maybe you can make a way for yourself as a poet here, too.’
Mary Jean Chan in conversation with Andrew McMillan.
‘There was to be an exhibition. There were lots of pictures like his, apparently – of waiters, pastry cooks, valets, bellboys.’
An essay by Jason Allen-Paisant from Granta 159: What Do You See?
‘I have started to see that nothing is itself’
A poem by Jason Allen-Paisant from Granta 154: I’ve Been Away for a While.
Momtaza Mehri and Warsan Shire talk about nineties London, parentification and diasporic inheritances.
‘like pasolini’s dream of an african oresteia let us be ridiculous’
‘salmaan the second son & his mama’s seventh seal by way of underwater & underemployment’
‘I want the reader to be conscious of reading and not being just drawn into the book and forgetting themselves and forgetting their life.’
Claire-Louise Bennett on her novel Checkout 19.
‘Memory is what reconciles us to the future. Because she has no past, her future rushes towards her, a bat's wing brushing against her face in the dark.’
