Gayathiri Kamalakanthan is a Tamil poet and producer. They are the recipient of the Disabled Poets Prize, the Faber & Andlyn Publisher’s Prize and the RSL Literature Matters Award, and now the winner of Poetry Archive Now! Worldwide 2025 for their poem ‘When I Ask Ammā to Sponsor Me for Pride Run 10K’. Their play ‘Period Parrrty’ is a romcom exploring trans Tamil love across generations, and opened at the Soho Theatre in October 2025. Their debut novel-in-verse, ‘Bad Queer’, is forthcoming with Faber, and they also run Word-Benders, a poetry workshop centering the work of trans and queer poets of colour. Read along to find out about their process and worldview. 

We interviewed Gayathiri to understand and bring to our listeners and readers a snippet of their creative life and journey, as an advocate for queer global majority voices. PAN! is Poetry Archive’s annual open call to poets world-wide, a collective space for unique and diverse voices in poetry and Gayathiri’s work represents and speaks to the power of the spoken word to move and inspire.

 

You are a poet, producer and now a playwright. And you run Word-Benders. Talk to us about your journey into writing.

I started writing during the first lockdown. I went to a free poetry workshop run by Writerz and Scribez and it really unlocked my desire to write. After that workshop, I wrote a first draft of a poem about my parents’ journey from Jaffna to London. Then I went to a Soho Labs taster workshop where the first prompt was to write a scene where each character could only speak 3 words at a time. And the first page of Period Parrrty, the play I eventually finished, came out (roughly!) on the page. 

I fell in love with being facilitated and then facilitating creative spaces – there’s a real exchange of creative energy that can happen! So Word-Benders, a monthly poetry workshop to read trans and queer poets of colour, came out of wanting to learn and connect more. 

 

Who are some of your favourite poets and if you can quote from a poem/collection that you consider was elemental to your journey which poem/ collection would that be?

Alok Vaid-Menon and their collection Femme in Public:

 

‘asking for gender is another 

way of asking: 

where did you come from? 

sometimes when i answer 

water comes 

Out.’

 

Jasmine Cooray and her collection Inheritance:

‘Become neat and shiny 

like a column of pennies. 

The slightest movement, 

and you spill everywhere.’ 

 

I read and listen to these poets performing their poems a lot. The truth around having to have a body and its connection to our feelings is so real to me.

 

You advocate for BIPOC creatives in London quite a lot. Talk us through your process. How do you find and build community and how can someone out there navigate this space?

Writerz and Scribez workshops were my entry point into the creative writing world. They do a lot to uplift work by Black writers and writers of colour. And they also supported Word-Benders in our first year. They got what I wanted to do – to create a dedicated, regular space where people could read and discuss work by QTIBPOC. I wanted to increase the number of people reading these poets. I wanted these poets to populate our imaginations and shape how we see the world. Writing is so powerful like that!
I’d tell my 25-year-old self to go to the events that you’re drawn to, rather than the creative writing events you think you ‘should be going to’. If you enjoyed someone’s performance or work, it’s really okay to send them a quick message saying that. And slowly, slowly connections can form from there. 

 

Where do you see yourself in the next 5 to 10 years, in poetry, writing and producing? What changes do you hope to see, and hope to make in the industry especially?

I’m working on a poetry collection and I’d love to get that to a solid place within the next 5 years! A friend and I are working on a poetry film and I LOVE short films, so learning and creating more in that film world would be so fun. 

I want to see artists getting paid appropriate fees by arts organisations for each aspect of the work they do on a project. For example, if you write something and get a writing fee, and then you’re asked to perform it, or record it, or facilitate a workshop around the work, you should be getting a different fee for those bits. It’s all extra time and skill that the artist is putting into the work. Often it’s not appropriately compensated. 

 

How did you first come across the Poetry Archive and how do you think the Poetry Archive brings value to the wider world of poetry?

I first came across the Poetry Archive when I was searching for poems to listen to. I listen to poems and books a lot. I love hearing people’s words in their own voices – it’s like you can get a sense of their feeling and intention. And the Poetry Archive has such a great bank of poems and recordings. It’s a real gift! One of the first poems I heard on it was Hannah Lowe’s ‘Fist’ and her reading gave me such a jolt of energy. 

 

What made you apply for this open call? And what does it mean for you to win PAN! 2025?

I really enjoy performing my poems and the opportunity to record a poem that would be uploaded online for people to watch was great.
When I Ask Ammā to Sponsor Me for Pride Run 10K is really close to my heart at the moment. For me, it’s about our capacity to love people, even if we don’t completely get them. Especially in 2025, when transphobia is so persistent across the UK, it’s important that stories about trans and queer relationships are read and shared.

 

You will be sharing the page with 17 other poets from all across the world. How does that make you feel?

It’s brilliant to be sharing the page with so many gorgeous writers from across the globe. I love how a connected writing community can make you feel, and how much we learn from one another. I can’t wait to dive into everyone’s poems!

 

Lastly, what is a small piece of advice or a message you’d like to leave behind for the next year’s applicants?

Write what is important and real to you. Write for yourself first, it’s just us and the page, before anything else.

 

Introduction by Devi Chatterjee.