Arji Manuelpillai
Arji Manuelpillai is a poet, performer and creative facilitator based in London. His work has appeared in Poetry Review, The Rialto and Bath Magg, and has been shortlisted for the National Poetry Prize (2021), the Out-Spoken Prize and the Winchester Poetry Prize (2021). He is a Jerwood/Arvon mentee (mentored by Hannah Lowe) and has received commissions from the Science Museum, the National Memorial Arboretum and the Princess of Wales.
Mutton Rolls is his debut pamphlet. His subsequent collection, Improvised Explosive Device (Penned in the Margins, 2022), was noted a Telegraph ‘Top 20 poetry books of the year’ and a Poetry Book Society Winter Selection.
“The poems in this brilliant, playful debut are multifarious though gratifyingly interlinked, addressing the subjects of Sri-Lankan British identity, masculinity, friendship, grief and love. The tone is sometimes satirical, but there is no hiding behind satire in Arji Manuelpillai’s work – great tenderness and beauty characterise these poems, and the poet’s voice is completely original, entirely his own.” — Hannah Lowe