Roshan Doug

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Roshan Doug
Roshan Doug in 2020
BornOctober 1963 (1963-10) (age 60)
Jalandhar, India
NationalityBritish
OccupationWriter
Years active1995–present (29 years)
Websiteroshandoug.com

Roshan Doug is a British writer and academic of Indian descent. He is a former Birmingham Poet Laureate appointed in 2000.[1][2][3] Since 2002 he has also been an INSET poet for the Poetry Society of Great Britain[4] and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Doug is a public speaker and critic for BBC London and The Times Educational Supplement.[5][6]

Early life and career[edit]

Roshan Doug was born in 1963 in Jalandhar, Punjab, India, and studied English at Lancaster, Lancashire.[citation needed] After graduation, he took an academic post in Greece, teaching English for the British Council.[citation needed] On his return to Britain in 1988, he was awarded the Cripps Hall Residential Tutorship at the University of Nottingham where he completed an MA in Modern English Literature.[7][failed verification]

After working in private schools in Athens for the British Council, FE colleges and universities in London and Oxford, Doug was appointed a Visiting Professor in English at Birmingham City University in 2003. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.[8] In 2015, after winning a bursary, Doug completed his Doctorate in Education (Learning and Learning Contexts) at the University of Birmingham and went on to publish a range of papers on English in education.[citation needed]

Literary career[edit]

Doug's first book Delusions was published in 1995. The Socialist Review described him as "a fresh and intelligent new voice in Anglo-Asian poetry".[citation needed] He has been anthologised by Spouting Forth (1997), Staple (2000), and Bloodaxe in their "Out of Bounds" volume of poetry (2013).

Doug's book The English-knowing Men published in 1999 was nominated for the Forward Prize for the Best Collection of that year.[citation needed] In 2001 the Orange Studio commissioned a collection, No I am Not Prince Hamlet, integrating themes of home, familiarity and cultural identity. In 2003, Doug was commissioned by Birmingham City University to produce a series of short elegies to commemorate the anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York.[citation needed] This formed a volume entitled The Delicate Falling of a God. He was shortlisted for the Asian Jewel Awards in the same year.

Doug's first collection of love poems, What Light is Light, was published by the University of Birmingham in 2012 and then "Mother India" the following year. Together with a commission from the Indian High Commission, it lead critics to conclude that his politics were shifting towards Hindu nationalism.[7][9][better source needed]

Doug has been commissioned by national and international organisations such as National Gallery London (1998), BBC Children in Need (2000), Birmingham Waterhall Gallery (2001), Martineau Place Birmingham (2001), Buckingham Palace for the Queen's 75th birthday (2001), The High Commission of India (2003), Adult Learners' Conference NEC Birmingham (2003), Embassy of the United States, London (2005), Graham Kershaw in 2005 and BBC Radio 4's Something Understood.[10][2]

In 2016, Doug published a paper in the International Journal of Education & Literacy Studies: "BIC Government White Paper, Handwriting: Developing Pupils' Identity and Cognitive Skills".[11]

Publications[edit]

As a columnist, Doug has written articles for publications such as The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Sunday Times, EasternEye and the BBC in-house magazine, Ariel. Doug has written a wide range of papers including "The Business of Poetry" for the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education for their conference "The Narrative Practitioner", to the prospective essay "Gandhi: a Punjabi perspective" for The London Review of Books, and "The British Schools' National Curriculum: English and the politics of teaching poetry from different cultures and traditions" for The Journal of Curriculum Studies.[12][13]

Books[edit]

  • Delusions, Charles Green Education (1995) ISBN 0-9526283-0-9
  • The English-knowing Men, Castle View Publications (1999) ISBN 0-9535407-0-7
  • No, I am Not Prince Hamlet, Orange Studio (2002) ISBN 0-9542162-0-2
  • The Delicate Falling of a God, UCE Press (2003) ISBN 0-90435457-1
  • Illusions, Delusions and Dirty Words, UCE Press (April 2004) ISBN 0904354806
  • What Light is Light, Birmingham University (November 2011) ISBN 978-0-7044-2815-7
  • Kabhi Kabhie, Amazon/Kindle (February 2021) ISBN 9798704608554

BBC broadcasts[edit]

Doug has written and presented many arts documentary features for BBC such as Infinite New Verses (recorded in China 2004), Pause for Thought (Radio 2), Something Understood, A Land of Ghosts, The Asian Single Parents (London 2006), A Land of Dreams and Goblins (India 2002), Cuba Libre (Havana 2006) and The English-knowing Men on the themes in Anglo-Asian Poetry (London, 2005).[citation needed] His BBC programme "The Good Father" broadcast in 2004, was nominated for the Sony Radio Awards.[14]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Why poetry matters in our world more than ever before". University of Birmingham.
  2. ^ a b Doug, Roshan (28 June 2013). "It's just an au revoir to Birmingham Central Library". Business Live.
  3. ^ "Poetry Landmarks - Individual Landmark". more.poetrysociety.org.uk.
  4. ^ Doug, Roshan. "rhYThm and PaCe in PoeTrY" (PDF). poetryclass.
  5. ^ "Dreadlock Alien is city laureate". BBC. 6 October 2005.
  6. ^ "Roshan Doug". Tes.
  7. ^ a b "UK poet laureate responds to call of Indian roots - Times of India". The Times of India.
  8. ^ Doug, Roshan (7 September 2004). "Poetry isn't punishment". The Guardian.
  9. ^ Doug, Roshan (July 2016). Narrative study: an immigrant pupil's experience of English and multicultural education. Etheses (d_ed).
  10. ^ "DESIblitz Online Literature Festival - Masterclass with Roshan Doug - Birmingham - Make It West Midlands". www.makeitwm.com. Archived from the original on 2020-11-30. Retrieved 2020-11-23.
  11. ^ Doug, Roshan. "Handwriting: Developing Pupils' Identity and Cognitive Skills" (PDF). Eric.ed.gov.
  12. ^ Doug, Roshan (1 August 2011). "The British schools' National Curriculum: English and the politics of teaching poetry from 'different cultures and traditions'". Journal of Curriculum Studies. 43 (4): 439–456. doi:10.1080/00220272.2011.576772. S2CID 144974027.
  13. ^ Doug, Roshan (6 December 2012). "Review: Squeeze, at Birmingham Symphony Hall". BirminghamLive.
  14. ^ "BBC - Radio 4 - whilst in A Good Read". www.bbc.co.uk.
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