Salena Godden


Salena Godden, poet, author, activist, broadcaster, memoirist and essayist.
Born in the UK, Salena Godden is of Jamaican-Irish heritage and based in London. Widely anthologised, Salena Godden has published several books. She has also written for BBC TV and radio and has released four studio albums to date.

Biography

Published books include poetry volumes Under The Pier ; Fishing in the Aftermath: Poems 1994-2014 ; literary childhood memoir Springfield Road
Latest publication: Pessimism Is For Lightweights - 13 pieces of Courage and Resistance, was published by Rough Trade Books in July 2018 in the first Rough Trade Editions series. The poem Pessimism is for Lightweights was a public poetry art piece on display outside the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol for over eighteen months.
Now in her third decade producing work, Salena Godden is the author of powerful comic poetry anthems: My Tits Are More Feminist Than your Tits, Imagine If You Had To Lick It and Can't Be Bovvered. Throughout September 2019 her period-politics piece RED was included as an art installation for a women-led exhibition The Most Powerful Woman In The Universe curated by artist and painter Kelly-Anne Davitt at Gallery 46, Whitechapel.
Essays have included Shade published in award-winning anthology The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shukla; Skin broadcast on The Essay, BBC Radio 3; We are The Champions published in Others ; And most recently Broken Biscuits edited by Sabrina Mahfouz and published in Smashing it! Working class artists on life, art and making it happen
Her first solo poetry album, LIVEwire was released in 2017/2018 on CD, vinyl 2LP and in print with indie spoken word label Nymphs and Thugs. This work was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award. Salena Godden's Live at Byline Festival EP was released October 2018 also with Nymphs and Thugs.
New work, a short film Is There Anybody Out There? was commissioned by Google and BBC Arts and is part of their Rhyme and Reason: BBC Arts programme, it aired in October 2019 and is currently on BBC Four, BBC iPlayer.
Her debut novel is Mrs Death Misses Death. A BBC Radio 4 documentary about the writing of Mrs Death Misses Death was broadcast throughout December 2018. The programme followed the work-in-progress over 12 months. The novel is described by the publisher, Canongate Books, as an “electrifying genre- and form-defying firestarter” and is due to be published in February 2021.
Some of Salena Godden's live poetry performances include: March For Women, Trafalgar Square; HUH at the LSO with the London Symphony Orchestra; Superjam at The British Library with Last Poets; The Stoke Newington Literary Festival; Festival of Debate with Helen Pankhurst; The Women's March, Parliament Square; Port Eliot Festival; Green Gathering; Curator of the LIVEwire stage and Poet Laureate at Byline Festival; The Women's Peace Council, Parliament Square; Edinburgh International Book Festival; Out-Spoken, The Purcell Room, Southbank; and Writers Rebellion, Trafalgar Square.
Salena Godden is represented by OWN IT!, a literary, film and TV agency.

Film Credits

Cahier Africain A feature film documentary about the humanitarian crisis in Central Africa Republic produced by award winning German director Heidi Specogna with English narration by Salena Godden. The film was awarded the Premio Zonta Club Locarno award by the Jury of the Semaine de la critique - Locarno for its humanitarian value and the Silver Dove.
Brakes Salena Godden appeared in Brakes which premiered at Edinburgh Film Festival. Brakes is an Independent UK debut, a dark improvised comedy directed and written by Mercedes Grower. It stars Noel Fielding, Julia Davis and Julian Barratt and many familiar faces of British comedy. Its UK television premiere was on Film4 in 2018.

Radio highlights

BBC Radio 4 - 'Stir it up' documentary
BBC Radio 4 - 'Little Miss Cornshucks' documentary
BBC Radio 4 - 'A Valentine at Waterloo' radio play
BBC Radio 3 - 'Skin' The Essay
BBC Radio 4 - Loose Ends with Clive Anderson
BBC Radio 3 - The Verb with Ian McMilan
BBC Radio 4 - Poetry Please with Roger McGough
BBC Radio 2 - Jonathan Ross Show
BBC Radio 4 - 'Mrs Death Mrs Death' documentary
Soho Radio - Morning Glory with James Endeacott
BBC Radio 4xtra - Telling Tales
BBC Radio 4xtra - Comedy Club
Recent acknowledgements, prizes and awards:
2016 Ted Hughes Award shortlist for LIVEwire
2016 BAME Guardian Short Story Prize shortlist with Blue Cornflowers
2016 Books Are My Bag Awards peoples choice winner with The Good Immigrant
2017 Book of the Year - British Book Awards shortlist with The Good Immigrant
2017 Jerwood Compton Foundation shortlist
2017 Saboteur Awards shortlist for LIVEwire
2018 The Rough Trade Top 10 Books - Pessimism is for Lightweights
2019 Jerwood Compton Foundation longlist
2019 Saboteur Awards special mention for Pessimism is for Lightweights
2019 Bridport Poetry Prize Shortlist
Selection of press quotes:
"Godden unleashes a ton of rage!" The Quietus
"Salena Godden is a powerhouse." Sabotage Reviews
"She is everything the Daily Mail is terrified of." Kerrang Magazine
"This brilliant poem is here to remind us Pessimism is for Lightweights. Print it. Laminate it. And send it to all the wonderful women in your life." Stylist Magazine
"Godden is less Godden and more Goddess, a superbly provocative delivery. Pessimism is for Lightweights appeals to me, this collection surrounds itself with love." The Fountain Review
"Salena Godden’s Pessimism is for Lightweights is a visceral approach to resistance poetry. As with Godden’s previous work, there is a raw, explosive energy to each poem" Caught By The River
"Not for the faint hearted,  Godden faces with robust clarity what many of us would prefer to distract ourselves from thinking about. She argues that Death is a woman; not the usual caricature of a hooded male figure carrying a sickle. She’s that invisible woman who can be found anywhere and everywhere: the careworn mother sitting beside us on the bus, or the cleaner in the hospital corridor we walk past and don’t notice. She lives among us in different guises; that’s the point. Death really is part of life." The Spectator

Selected publishing: books and anthologies

Salena Godden books