Roshan Doug is a British writer and academic of Indian descent. He is a former
Birmingham Poet Laureate appointed in 2000.
Since 2002 he has also been an INSET poet for the Poetry Society of Great Britain and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
In 2020 Doug founded a charity organisation, Perspective Education, that supports and trains teachers and educationalists to provide a creative curriculum and holistic approach to teaching, learning and child development.
Doug is a public speaker and critic for
BBC London
BBC London is the BBC English Region producing local radio, television, teletext and online services in London and parts of the surrounding area. Its output includes the daily ''BBC London News'' and weekly '' Sunday Politics'' on television, ...
and The ''
Times Educational Supplement
''Tes'', formerly known as the ''Times Educational Supplement'', is a weekly UK publication aimed at education professionals. It was first published in 1910 as a pull-out supplement in ''The Times'' newspaper. Such was its popularity that in 19 ...
''.
Early life and career
Roshan Doug was born in 1963 in
Jalandhar
Jalandhar is the third most-populous city in the Indian state of Punjab and the largest city in Doaba region. Jalandhar lies alongside the Grand Trunk Road and is a well-connected rail and road junction. Jalandhar is northwest of the state ...
,
Punjab, India
Punjab (; ) is a state in northern India. Forming part of the larger Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the north and northeast, Haryana to the south and southeast, and ...
, and studied English at
Lancaster, Lancashire
Lancaster (, ) is a city and the county town of Lancashire, England, standing on the River Lune. Its population of 52,234 compares with one of 138,375 in the wider City of Lancaster local government district. The House of Lancaster was a branch ...
. After graduation, he took an academic post in Greece, teaching English for the British Council. On his return to Britain in 1988, he was awarded the Cripps Hall Residential Tutorship at the
University of Nottingham
, mottoeng = A city is built on wisdom
, established = 1798 – teacher training college1881 – University College Nottingham1948 – university status
, type = Public
, chancellor ...
where he completed an MA in Modern English Literature.
After working in private schools in Athens for the British Council, FE colleges and universities in London and Oxford, Doug was appointed a Visiting Professor in English at Birmingham City University in 2003. He is a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Arts. In 2015, after winning a bursary, Doug completed his Doctorate in Education (Learning and Learning Contexts) at the
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...
and went on to publish a range of papers on English in education.
Literary career
Doug's first book ''Delusions'' was published in 1995. ''The Socialist Review'' described him as "a fresh and intelligent new voice in Anglo-Asian poetry". He has been anthologised by ''Spouting Forth'' (1997), ''Staple'' (2000), and ''Bloodaxe'' in their "Out of Bounds" volume of poetry (2013).
Doug's book ''The English-knowing Men'' published in 1999 was nominated for the Forward Prize for the Best Collection of that year. In 2001 the Orange Studio commissioned a collection, ''No I am Not Prince Hamlet'', integrating themes of home, familiarity and cultural identity. In 2003, Doug was commissioned by Birmingham City University to produce a series of short elegies to commemorate the anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York. This formed a volume entitled ''The Delicate Falling of a God''. He was shortlisted for the Asian Jewel Awards in the same year.
Doug's first collection of love poems, ''What Light is Light'', was published by the University of Birmingham in 2012 and then "Mother India" the following year. Together with a commission from the Indian High Commission, it lead critics to conclude that his politics were shifting towards
Hindu nationalism.
Doug has been commissioned by national and international organisations such as
National Gallery London
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director of ...
(1998),
BBC Children in Need (2000),
Birmingham Waterhall Gallery (2001),
Martineau Place Birmingham (2001),
Buckingham Palace for the Queen's 75th birthday (2001), The High Commission of India (2003), Adult Learners' Conference NEC Birmingham (2003),
Embassy of the United States, London (2005), Graham Kershaw in 2005 and
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
's
Something Understood
''Something Understood'' is a weekly radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 since 1995 which deals with topics of religion, spirituality, and the larger questions of human life, and took a particular spiritual theme, exploring it through speech, ...
.
In 2016, Doug published a paper in the ''International Journal of Education & Literacy Studies'': "BIC Government White Paper, Handwriting: Developing Pupils' Identity and Cognitive Skills".
Publications
As a columnist, Doug has written articles for publications such as ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', ''The Times'', ''The Independent'', ''The Daily Telegraph'', ''The Daily Mail'', ''The Sunday Times'', ''EasternEye'' and the BBC in-house magazine, ''Ariel''. Doug has written a wide range of papers including "The Business of Poetry" for the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education for their conference "The Narrative Practitioner", to the prospective essay "Gandhi: a Punjabi perspective" for ''The London Review of Books'', and "The British Schools' National Curriculum: English and the politics of teaching poetry from different cultures and traditions" for ''The Journal of Curriculum Studies''.
Books
* ''Delusions'', Charles Green Education (1995)
* ''The English-knowing Men'', Castle View Publications (1999)
* ''No, I am Not Prince Hamlet'', Orange Studio (2002)
* ''The Delicate Falling of a God'', UCE Press (2003)
* ''Illusions, Delusions and Dirty Words'', UCE Press (April 2004)
* ''What Light is Light'', Birmingham University (November 2011)
* ''Kabhi Kabhie'', Amazon/Kindle (February 2021)
BBC broadcasts
Doug has written and presented many arts documentary features for
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
such as ''Infinite New Verses'' (recorded in China 2004), ''Pause for Thought'' (Radio 2), ''Something Understood'', ''A Land of Ghosts'', ''The Asian Single Parents'' (London 2006), ''A Land of Dreams and Goblins'' (India 2002), ''Cuba Libre'' (Havana 2006) and ''The English-knowing Men'' on the themes in Anglo-Asian Poetry (London, 2005). His BBC programme "The Good Father" broadcast in 2004, was nominated for the Sony Radio Awards.