Gita Ralleigh

@gitaralleigh

Writer/Poet/Lecturer/ex-doc Kids: Minou Moonshine 2023/ Sam Singh 2024 Bloomsbury Kids Poetry: Empirical 2026 @thebraag.bsky.social Siren 2022 @brokensleepbooks.bsky.social A Terrible Thing 2020 Bad Betty Press

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Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· 22d

What an absolute delight! A Scrap of Moss & Magick, out in October with @dfbstoryhouse.bsky.social is a perfect autumn read for young fantasy fans! Thank you also for your kind words @hejparry.bsky.social 🙏🏽

The cover of a proof copy of A Scrap of Moss and Magick by Helen Parry

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Jul 6

What a thrill to see ‘Empirical’ highlighted by the Poetry Book Society for #SouthAsianHeritageMonth! Thank you to lovely Sarala for letting me know! #ukpoets #poetrysky Available here: www.poetrybooks.co.uk/products/emp... or direct from @thebraag.bsky.social

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Jul 6

Isabella Hammad’s ‘Enter Ghost’ which is wonderful.

Cover of Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad with young woman sitting alone in a theatre.

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Jul 4

Voices of Wandsworth: South Asian Poetry & Performance on 25 July 2026, 1:30-4:30 pm I'm reading wiith @betarish.bsky.social Suman Gujral, Rishika Williams, Anita Pati, Gurmeet Kaur, Renu Gidoomal & Koushik Banerjea www.tickettailor.com/events/sindh... #southasianheritagemonth #ukpoets #poetrysky

Voices of Wandsworth promo image with megaphone held by a hand clad in an Indian textile patterned sleeve.

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Jul 2

July is #SouthAsianHeritageMonth And as always I am here for the books: #booksky #kidlituk #ukkidlit #southasianheritagemonth uk.bookshop.org/lists/south-...

Covers of:
Free to be Me Smriti Halls & Nila Aye
Super Uma Rashmi Sirdeshpande & Nakul P
You be You Chitra Soundar & Sophie Bass
Nadia Islam on the Record Adiba Jaigirdar
Vanya and the Wild Hunt Sangu Mandanna
Escape from the Child Snatchers Sufiya Ahmed
Witch Light Zohra Nabi
Dream Hunters: The Night Curse Nazima Pathan
The Night I Borrowed Time Iqbal Hussain
Bad Queer Gayathiri Kamalakanthan
Your Murder Next Ravena Guron

Strange Girls Sarvat Hasin
We Dance With Demons Vaishnavi Patel
Leave and Come Back Lavanya Lakshmi
The Complex Karan Mahajan
Belgrave Road Manish Chauhan
Wimmy Road Boyz Sufiyaan Salam
Good People Patmena Sabit
Under Water Tara Menon
The Last Of Earth Deepa Anappara

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Jun 26

Late to the party but what a truly excellent film #thesecretagent #filmsky

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Jun 20

Fun if slightly sweaty day at #RichmondCon with some fantastic panel discussions! @booksontherise.bsky.social #booksky #sff

Emma Farrarons
Frances Hardinge
Louie Stowell
Rogba Payne

Samantha Shannon
Ian MacDonald
MH Ayinde
Sandra Newman

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Jun 12

*preens, stretches, reaches for bookshelf:

Shelf of Terry Pratchett hardbacks (more elsewhere!). Basically all the eldest kid would read between 11 and 14 so a LOT of birthday and Christmas presents.

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Jun 10

Although the British authorities have nixed any possibility of a Benny the Raccoon follow up: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Screenshot from a BBC news page about Basil the Fox the stowaway to New York now living his best life at the Brooklyn Zoo, adding that a stowaway raccoon was put down at Southampton a few weeks earlier.

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Jun 7

Family Station @britishlibrary.bsky.social 26/07/26 11:30/13:30 FREE link in bio! Do you dream of riding a flying horse or secretly yearn for your very own yeti? Explore legendary South Asian mythical creatures with Gita Ralleigh, create your own poems and take part in our relaxed Poetry Slam! 7+

The Simurgh, from a British Library manuscript

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Jun 5

I’m obviously biased but I do love both of my own: 😉

Covers of The Destiny of Minou Moonshine and The Voyage of Sam Singh by Gita Ralleigh

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· May 31

This - on the final meander of this gorgeously polyphonic modern novel of diaspora and belonging, told through multiple stories including that of Saraswati, both goddess and mythical river:

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· May 23

This just arrived! Thank you so much @norfolkbookworm.bsky.social & @biggreenbooks.bsky.social Cannot wait to dive in:

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· May 21

I'm absolutely thrilled to be facilitating a conversation and reading with Daljit Nagra as part of the first ever ARC Uxbridge Book Festival. Tickets available here: bit.ly/4tP6SBd and there's also an open mic!! Check out the whole programme here: lnkd.in/ebqBNvKv #poetrycommunity #ukpoets

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Apr 30

Apparently national icons Elmer the elephant and Axel Scheffler are now too woke for the Telegraph:

Screenshot from The Telegraph re supposed ‘pro-migrant messages’ in children’s picture books

Screenshot from The Telegraph re supposed ‘pro-migrant messages’ in children’s picture books. Journalist is Craig Simpson.

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Apr 25

lovely to see all three of my poetry publishers at the #freeversefair ! And look at my book haul…

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Apr 24

The tail end of my @worldbookdayuk.bsky.social visits was this week: a lovely pro bono visit to a local primary with sixty books sold! Thrilled that so many children will have these on their shelves. Available from Waterstones, indies, A**zon & uk.bookshop.org/shop/gitaral...

Gita Ralleigh with her two books:
The Destiny of Minou Moonshine and The Voyage of Sam Singh

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Apr 22

Sensible. I am already in love with this Microlino I often see parked where I work. #EarthDay #EVs

Red Microlino 2-seater electric car https://microlino-car.com/en-ch/microlino

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Apr 22

Happy #EarthDay ! A poem to Aranyani the forest goddess, from the Rig Veda from 1000-1500 BC: ‘The Mother of all sylvan things, who tills not but hath stores of food.’ sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/... For #NaPoWriMo write a praise poem to your own forest deity. #poetrysky #ukpoets Pic details in Alt

A photo by me of Quentin Bell’s ‘Levitating Lady’ taken at Charleston in Sussex.

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Apr 16

It’s true Bluesky has its flaws, but overall I’m pretty happy here surrounded by Wombles, poets, writers and other bookish people. skircle.me #booksky #poetrysky

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Apr 13

Working through this pile - so far The Witch is amazing…

THE CITY AND ITS UNCERTAIN WALLS MURAKAMI

THE WITCH MARIE NDIAYE

THE IMMORTAL KING RAO VAUHINI VARA

SARASWATI GURNAIK JOHAL

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Apr 9

PSA for #kidlit enthusiasts, parents of bored kids, educators – @waterstoneskids.bsky.social @waterstones.bsky.social has a great clearance on at the moment with some bargain middle-grade books – including #TheVoyageofSamSingh! #kidlituk #ukkidlit #booksky

My Waterstones basket:
The Voyage of Sam Singh Gita Ralleigh
Land of the Last Wildcat Lui Sit
Bearmouth Liz Hyder

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Apr 9

From the brilliant Julia Bell, whose 'Between the Lines' is out soon: www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Betwee... Full Substack post here: open.substack.com/pub/professo... #writersky #writingintheageofai

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Apr 7

Had the most fabulous Sunday at #Eastercon @easterconuk.bsky.social talking multilingualism, exophony and the metonymic gap with Donna Scott, @aliettedebodard.com @thecallya.bsky.social & @k-a-teryna.bsky.social & watching panels on folklore, global SFF and religion in worldbuilding! #iridescence

Programme excerpt Eastercon: Languages and Multilingualism panel.

Covers of Empirical and The Voyage of Sam Singh by me plus Exophony: Voyages Outside the Mother Tongue by Yoko Tawada and Eastercon badge.

Panel on Writing SFF from Elsewhere: Global Voices in a Western Market at Eastercon including Kat Kourbeli, Karen Lord, Aliette de Bodard, C.L. Hellisen and K.A Teryna

Panel on Faith, Belief, Authenticity and Worldbuilding at Eastercon with Adrian Tchaikovsky, Karen Lord, Meg Mcdonald, Roseanna Pendlebury and Emily Tesh

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Apr 1

Happy #NaPoWriMo ! I’m trying short forms this month, from haiku & tanka to cinquains, elevenies & zuhitsu. First pic of my 3 pamphlets, inspirations, wonderful poets who’ve said kind words & my short poem after Evie Shockley’s ‘My Life As China’ thebraag.co/product/empi... #NaPoWriMo26 #poetrysky

Festival by Mia You
Mouth by Mona Arshi
Disquieting by Celia Cruz
Hiding to Nothing by Anita Pati

Voyage of the Sable Venus Robin Coste Lewis
Dictee Theresa Hak Kyung
Ban en Banlieue Bhanu Kapil
Everyone Knows I am a Haunting Shivanee Ramlochan

My Life as Ink by Gita Ralleigh from ‘Empirical’ published by The Braag

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Mar 30

Actually sinking into a hefty novel after a long time is a completely delightful experience. #booksky #MondayReads #bigbooks #bookerprize

Photo of The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Mar 28

Finally met amazing publisher @kymdeyn.bsky.social & fellow @thebraag.bsky.social poet @andrewblair.co.uk at the lovely 1b books in Heaton, Newcastle! Kym & Andrew definitely look like they’re in a folkish indie band while I’m giving proud mum vibes. #ukpoets #poetrysky

Photo of Andrew Blair, Gita Ralleigh and Kym Deyn at 1b books, Heaton, Newcastle

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Mar 27

Children’s Literature people, teachers, parents, do get yourselves to the stunning (and family friendly) @britishlibrary.bsky.social #fairytales exhibition! #ukkidlit #kidlituk

The British Library lit up for the opening of an exhibition on fairytales

Gita with Sanchita Basu and Sita Brahmachari

A stunning illustration from Adventure Stories for Daring Girls illustrated by Khoa Le

Princess and the Pea bed at the British Library fairytales exhibit

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Mar 27

I love the rich, inventive magic system in the #DreamHunters duology by Nazima Pathan! #kidsbookfriday And (not strictly a series) I will forever be a Chrestomanci fan #dianawynnejones

Gita and Nazima Pathan at the launch of Dream Hunters book 2 (The Night Curse)

Gita Ralleigh@gitaralleigh· Mar 26

Poets, poetry lovers (or even poetry curious) in Newcastle/the North East? Come to a free reading at lovely indie bookshop 1b books in Heaton tomorrow! I’ll be reading from ‘Empirical’ & @andrewblair.co.uk from ‘polblar tmolkop’ our new pamphlets with @thebraag.bsky.social #ukpoets