Gayathiri Kamalakanthan

Gayathiri Kamalakanthan is a Tamil poet and sex educator. They’re interested in how language shapes childhood and how we might use it to queer the future. Kamalakanthan won the Faber & Andlyn Publisher’s Prize, the Primadonna Fiction Prize and placed second in the MONO Prize. They’re a co-author of Sex Ed: An Inclusive Teenage Guide to Sex and Relationships. Kamalakanthan has performed with the Roundhouse, DAYTIMERS and UK Black Pride and their debut play PERIOD PARRRTY is in development with Kali Theatre. Kamalakanthan’s debut novel in verse is forthcoming with Faber.

Kamalakanthan is an alum of Griots Well, London Library Emerging Writers and Diversifying Children’s Literature with Apples & Snakes. They run the poetry workshops WORD-BENDERS at The Common Press and Queer Poetry Sauna at Hackney Sauna Baths. With DYCP they’re deepening their practice within the decolonial creative classroom; they’ve spoken on decolonising storytelling, queerness and sex education with the Barbican, Colours Youth Network, Sex Money Power with Sara Pascoe, and BBC Radio London.