Malika Booker

Who am I?

Malika Booker's pamphlet Breadfruit (flippedeye publishing) was recommended by the Poetry Book Society and her debut collection Pepper Seed (Peepal Tree Press) was longlisted for the OCM Bocas prize (2014) and shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Centre prize for first full collection (2014). She is pblished with the poets Sharon Olds and Warsan Shire in The Penguins Modern Poet Series 3: Your Family: Your Body (2017). Her poem Nine Nights was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single poem in 2017. She is the founder of Malika's Poetry Kitchen, a wriitng collective that has produced award winning poets since 2001.

Malika first theatre show Absolution (1999) was commissioned by The Austrian Cultural Institute, Apples and Snakes and Battersea Arts Centre, and had a week's run at BAC. Her one-woman show UNPLANNED (2007) exploring issues around women's fertility, cultural and gender identies was produced by Apples and Snakes and toured nationwide. Catwalk (2001), the mussical play, commissioned by Nitro ran at the Tricycle Theatre in 2001 and enjoyed a successful UK tour.

Malika is currently the recipient of a Research and Development commission to create an R&D of her next play. She was Chair of Judges for The Forward Prize in 2016 and is a fellow of both The Complete Works and Cave Canem as well as inaugural poet in Residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company (2010).  Booker was both a Douglas Caster Cultural Fellow in Ceative Writing and LHRI Felllow at Leeds University (2015 - 2017).  In 2019 she was commissioned to write and perform a poem about Mars for a BBC Science series about the solar system and was awarded a prestigious Society of Authors Cholmondley Award for her contribution to poetry.  She is a Creative Writing lecturer at the Manchester Writing School at MMU and  Chair of Judges for the international Manchester Poetry Prize 2019.

Why do I teach?

I teach because I love it. I enjoy seeing my students discover the joy, excitement and challeges of creative writing. It also enables me to encourage and inspire a new generation of writers, readers, publishers, and agents. But most importantly I have a platform to learn, discuss and exchange ideas about the craft of writing.

Academic and professional qualifications

Academic and Professional qualifications

2013, MA Creative Writing and Life Writing, Gold College, University of London (Distinction)

1992, BSC Anthropology, Goldsmiths College, University of London

Previous employment

2018 Creative Writing Teaching Fellow, University of Leeds

2015 Douglas Caster Cultural Fellow in Creatie Writing, University of Leeds

2012 Lecturer MA, University of Westminster

Why study ?

Undergraduate courses

Language and Technique (level 4)

Remake/Remodel (level 5)

BA Creative Project/Dissertation (level 6)

Postgraduate teaching

MA Creative Project (level 7)

MA Creative Dissertation (level 7)

MFA Manuscript (level 7)

Research expertise

Black British Contemporary Poetry, Women Contemporary poets, Caribbean and African American Contemporary Poetry,  Autobiographical and Confessional Poetry, Poetry of Witness, Poetry and Performance, Teaching Creative Writing in Schools

Publications

• Books (authored/edited/special issues)

  M. Booker, S. Olds, W. Shire (2017). penguin modern poets 3. Penguin.

  M. Booker (2013). Pepper Seed. Peepal Tree PressLtd.

Prizes and awards

Won

• Cholmondeley Awards, Society of Authors (2019)

Shortlisted

• Forward Prize for Best Single Poem (2017)
• OCM Bocas Prize
• Seamus Heaney Centre Prize for Poetry
• The Pat Kavanagh Prize (2013)