Join us to celebrate the launch of Ilisha Thiru Purcell’s debut pamphlet, What She Said, with readings from Mymona Bibi, Helen Bowell, Gabrielle Tse, and Thivyaa
‘In her stunning debut pamphlet, Ilisha Thiru Purcell reworks and revivifies the millennia old Tamil poetic practice of Thinnai – the poetics of a codified landscape – transplanting it to her home environment in the North East of England. Her perfectly crafted, almost elegiac poems root trauma and recovery deeply within a landscape which acts not just as witness, but also as a canvas. For me, reading What She Said felt like coming home: not to a home I once abandoned, but to the comforting presence of the old within the new. An exciting fresh voice which plays with form and metaphor with breath taking skill, this is diasporan poetics at its best.’ – Shash Trevett; The Naming of Names (Smith|Doorstop 2024) and co-editor of Out of Sri Lanka (Bloodaxe 2023)
Content information: please note that themes of sexual violence will be discussed during the event. 16+ recommended.
About the speakers:
Ilisha Thiru Purcell is an award-winning Sri Lankan-Scottish poet from Newcastle upon Tyne. She was part of the inaugural Poets of Colour Incubator Programme and was a Young Creative Associate with New Writing North. Ilisha was a Poet in Residence at the 2025 StAnza Poetry Festival, winning the Futurist Award. She has been shortlisted for the James Berry Prize and Nine Arches’ Primers. Her work has appeared in publications such as Bi+ Lines Anthology, Butcher’s Dog, and Third Space Anthology. What She Said is Ilisha’s debut poetry pamphlet and was published by Verve Poetry Press in April 2025. @ilishadoespoetry
Mymona Bibi is a Bengali-British writer, facilitator and teacher based in Newcastle upon Tyne. Her writing has been featured in the Ilkley Literature Festival, Magma Poetry, Butcher's Dog, Written Off Publishing, and Lumpen Press. She has produced and performed at events such as the Newcastle Fringe Festival (2023) and NOVUM (2023 and 2024). She created and now facilitates the World Writes multilingual community writing group. @wordsbymymona
Helen Bowell is a poet, producer and editor. Her debut pamphlet The Barman (Bad Betty Press, 2022) tells the story of a relationship with an unnamed barman backwards and was a Poetry Book Society Choice. Her poems, reviews and translations have been published in bath magg, Poetry London, The Poetry Review, Poetry Wales and elsewhere. She co-directs Dead [Women] Poets Society, which resurrects women poets through events and online; ran Bi+ Lines, a project for bi+ poets, and edited the first anthology of bi+ poets (fourteen poems, 2023); and produced the Poetry Translation Centre's 20th birthday programme of events in 2024.
Gabrielle Tse is a Hong Kong-born writer of Chinese and Filipina descent. She’s currently studying Comparative Literature in Edinburgh; previously, she read Law at The University of Hong Kong. She was shortlisted for the Scottish Book Trust’s New Writers Award in 2025 and won the Hong Kong Young Writers Award two years in a row. Her pamphlet, Rustlings, was published by Verve in 2025.
Thivyaa (she/her) is an Eelam Tamil multidisciplinary artist, doctor and queer activist. She is particularly interested in using the creative arts for social justice orientated healing, and uses artistic expression to challenge oppressive societal norms.