Tishani Doshi Readings and Workshops
‘Tishani Doshi’s dextrous, vibrant and vital poems delight and shimmer. Across Egrets, While War, the range of her subjects is vast: the ancient and modern comingle with poems of personal and civic responsibility. Throughout, an aviary of sonnets addresses the birds of mythology and literature with grace and invention. Wars, historical and contemporary, provide the contexts for these powerful poems of resistance and humanity.’ – PEN Heaney Prize 2026 Judging Panel
Poet, novelist and dancer Tishani Doshi's fifth collection, Egrets, While War, was published by Bloodaxe Books in May 2026. It is on the shortlist for both the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2026 and the PEN Heaney Prize 2026.
The poems in Egrets, While War navigate the deep entanglements between environmental loss, ancestral memory, the slow transformations of ageing, and the devastations of war. Birds appear throughout these pages, not simply as subjects but as symbols and messengers, witnesses to war, extinction and exile. Mythic birds from the Ramayana fly alongside city pigeons and wild peacocks, forming a living archive of flight and disappearance. Here, love and desire emerge not as consolation, but as a form of radical presence – one of the last ways we remain tethered to the world. With lyric clarity and a gaze both wide and precise, Egrets, While War becomes a meditation on survival – of species, of history, of the heart.
Tishani Doshi's fourth collection A God at the Door was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2021. Her third, Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods, was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. The collection and her accompanying dance performance were shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry 2018. Her previous two collections were Everything Begins Elsewhere, published by Bloodaxe in 2012, and her debut, Countries of the Body (Aark Arts) winner of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Her second novel, Small Days and Nights (Bloomsbury, 2019) was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize. Tishani Doshi was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in July 2023.
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Tishani Doshi launched her fifth collection, Egrets, While War, with a series of readings and performances at UK and Irish festivals from 23 May to 28 June 2026, including the Hay Festival, Jaipur Literature Festival (Dublin and London), Dalkey Book Festival (Ireland) and Ledbury Poetry Festival, at which she performed a stunning new piece created espeically for this new collection, combining dance, poetry and moving image. A short trailer for this can be seen on YouTube here. A short film featuring a poem from one of her performances is below.
She also gave readings at Poetry at the Coronet in London, and at Cafe Jikoni at the V&A East Museum, London, where she was in conversation with novelist Kamila Shamsie.
This clip of Tishani Doshi's dance interpretation of the poem ‘Home Speaks in Many Tongues’ from Egrets, While War was recorded at the Jaipur Literature Festival London at the British Library on 7 June 2026.
Scroll down to watch a video of Tishani's joint online reading and discussion launch event hosted by Bloodaxe Books.
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Three new poems by Tishani Doshi were featured online on Wasafiri Magazine's website ahead of publication of the Bloodaxe edition of Egrets, While War. The two sonnets are included in the UK edition, and the third poem 'Monsieur Tout-Le-Monde', will be included in the US and Indian editions, which are published later in 2026. Read the feature here.
Poetry London published an exclusive online conversation between Tishani Doshi and Michael Symmons Roberts. The two poets discussed one another's work and shared themes in their new collections. The conversation is online here.
For links to reviews and podcast interviews, see: https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/news?articleid=1615
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FORTHCOMING READINGS
Saturday 24 October 2026, 7.30pm, Forward Prize Readings, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London
The Forward Prize Ceremony and Readings will be held at London's Southbank Centre on 24 October. All the shortlisted poets will be invited to perform live before the winners are revealed. Tishani Doshi's fifth collection, Egrets, While War is on the shortlist for the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2026. Roshni Gallagher's debut collection Even the Trees is on the shortlist for the Jerwood Prize for Best First Collection.
Tishani Doshi will be travelling to the UK to take part in person.
In person tickets: £14
https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/the-2026-forward-prizes-for-poetry-ceremony/
Livestream tickets: free
https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/the-2026-forward-prizes-for-poetry-ceremony-live-stream/
PAST READINGS & RECORDINGS
Tuesday 19 May 2026, joint online launch event for Egrets, While War
Tishani Doshi and Jennifer Lee Tsai joined us for this launch event for new May 2026 titles. Patricia Smith was originally advertised as taking part but was unable to due to unforeseen circumstances. Both Tishani and Jennifer celebrated the publication of their new books by reading selections from them and discussing their work with the host, Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley.
This free Bloodaxe launch event was streamed on YouTube Live and is now available on this YouTube page: https://youtube.com/live/4x0gzWrAClU
Tuesday 20th July 2021, 6pm to 7pm, GemArts Masala Festival & Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts
'A God at the Door': Tishani Doshi reading and in conversation with John Challis
Award-winning poet and dancer, Tishani Doshi gave an online reading for NCLA and the GemArts Masala Festival on 20 July 2021. Born in Madras, India, Tishani is of Welsh-Gujarati descent and has published four collections of poetry and two novels. Her first collection, Countries of the Body, won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and her most recent novel, Small Days and Nights (Bloomsbury, 2019), was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize.
Tishani was reading from her fourth collection, A God at the Door (Bloodaxe, 2021), a collection of poems that bestows power on the powerless, deploys beauty to heal trauma, and enables the voices of the oppressed to be heard with piercing clarity. From flightless birds and witches, to black holes and Marilyn Monroe, A God at the Door illuminates with lines and images that surprise, inflame and dazzle.
After her reading, Tishani was in conversation about her poetry with John Challis, Research Associate at Newcastle University, and author of The Resurrectionists (Bloodaxe, 2021). A fascinating and deeply thoughtful discussion. A video of this hour-long event is below.
Tishani Doshi in conversation with John Challis at the GemArts Masala Festival on 20 July 2021
Tishani was reading from her Forward Prize-shortlisted collection A God at the Door and was in conversation with fellow Bloodaxe poet John Challis. 'Poems are so small but they have the possibility to work with such incredible scale' – Tishani Doshi
Wednesday 28 April 2021, Coronet Inside Out series, Coronet Theatre, Notting Hill, London
For Coronet Inside Out poet, novelist and dancer Tishani Doshi recorded these poems from Kodaikanal, a hill station in Tamil Nadu, from her fourth collection, A God at the Door, published by Bloodaxe Books on 22 April 2021. She says:
‘What I love about the Coronet is its sense of intimacy and other-worldliness. When you pass through the doors — whether it’s into the bar or to the theatre, there’s a sense of crossing over a threshold and entering into a different space – where you are connected with strangers, where transformations can happen. Most of the poems in my fourth collection, A God at the Door (Bloodaxe), have to do with this idea of connection and intimacy. For me the two touchstones are language and the body, the idea that any pilgrimage must lead back to ourselves, our bodies, but that we are in this together. Poems are bridges, they can connect our personal losses to public grief, they can also offer glimpses of beauty, humour & hope.’ – Tishani Doshi
Tuesday 20 April 2021, Bloodaxe Books poetry online, joint launch with Tishani Doshi, Dom Bury & Jenna Clake
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Poet and dancer Tishani Doshi toured the UK and Ireland in 2018 with readings and dance/spoken word performances for her third collection Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods, a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. She devised the twenty-minute dance piece herself, and performed it to a recording of her reading the title poem (see film below). Tishani danced for many years with the renowned choreographer Chandralekha, with whom she performed internationally.
Tishani Doshi kicked off her UK & Irish tour with an interview on Radio 4's Front Row on Monday 21 May 2018. Listen here.
Read an interview with Tishani on the Bookanista website here.
Tishani Doshi dances Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods at the Dylan Thomas Birthplace
Tishani Doshi performs her dance version of ‘Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods’ in the Dylan Thomas Birthplace, Swansea, in July 2018. Filmed by Gareth M Davies (www.seebehindthemoon.com). Poem read by her with music composed by Luca Nardon (www.lucanardon.it).
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Tishani Doshi was guest on Radio 3's The Verb recorded at the Hay Festival, where she read in May 2022. The Verb at Hay was broadcast on 3 June at 10pm. Listen here.
Tishani was featured in Ars Notoria, along with three poems from her fourth collection A God at the Door. Illustrated with photos of Tishani dancing the piece she devised to accompany her 2018 Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods tour. Read the Poet of Honour feature here.
Ahead of her event at Mountains to Sea Festival on 27 March 2021, Tishani shared her Life in Books with Ireland's Sunday Independent. Read the feature here.
Tishani Doshi was interviewed on the BBC World Service's The Cultural Frontline on 27 March about the interplay between dance and poetry in her creative work. Listen here (2nd item).
A God at the Door was reviewed in The Guardian's best recent poetry round-up for April 2021 here and in the Times Literary Supplement's poetry round-up here.
Two stunning shaped poems from the collection were featured in Bookanista here to mark publication on 22 April 2021.
Tishani's poem 'Species' from A God at the Door was read and discussed by Irish poet Pádraig Ó Tuama on the US Poetry Unbound podcast of 8 October 2021. Listen here.
[08 April 2026]
