One of things that drew me to Sharma’s collection is that he’s contributing an essay to a book I’m also part of. I was interested to see how his approach to poetry informed my expectations of his academic writing.

 

Academic he is, as the quotation suggests, pursuing a PhD. That’s one of the trickier edges to his writing. There are some hilarious puns (like the Fanon one above; also “Brathwaite’s breath waits” (36)) drawing in a constellation of intellectual and literary companions, alongside some curious personal narratives.

 

Sharma runs the 87press with a strong radical agenda and inclusive approach to perspectives. For myself, the collection (and the press) sometimes leans into academese too hard, in a way that coasts on too-simple and borrowed tropes, but there’s a vein of humour and liveliness underscoring his poetry I much enjoyed. Also reaching for a more tolerable future, as in that quotation.

 

There are also some mysterious references to addiction, a (south London?) clubbing scene and recovery that pre-dates the pandemic that I’m curious to read more of, if the cerebral defences lower themselves to let more of that out.

 

The forms are wild and I’m interested in the essays embedded in his collection. Will probably write about those more in the new thread at some point, alongside Rob Kiely’s similar approach.