Have high standards. Be brave. Try everything. Give up on some things. There is food at home.
Describe yourself in 3 words…
Future fun grandma
What inspires you?
The women in my life. The company of creatives. The desire to anger the aunties.
Tell us about your worst ever gig?
It was a small audience. Person in the front row wouldn’t stop yawning. My hands were shaking. My words were blending. I think I mixed two of my poems. I can’t recall the actual performance. I was on stage for less than two minutes.
What’s your number one poetry pet peeve?
Not a pet peeve related to writing, but hooting during performances. I love the mmms and snaps though.
Whose words do you love at the moment?
I find myself going back to Mirza Ghalib’s ghazals a lot recently.
What piece of advice would you give to your younger self?
Have high standards. Be brave. Try everything. Give up on some things. There is food at home. I am still working on them, especially the last one.
What is your favourite strange food combinations?
I’ll preface this by saying everything that’s cool now was once considered weird. Spicy maggi noodles with natural yoghurt. Don’t mix them. Have a spoonful of noodles, then a spoonful of yoghurt. The perfect balance between hot and cool.
Muskaan Razdan was born and raised in India and moved to the UK in 2019. She is a part of: Roundhouse Poetry Collective 2022/23; Apple and Snakes Writers Room 2022 and was also a UniSlam Finalist in 2022. She has had work published in several anthologies – Bubble wrap, Maple and Anthology of Fall. Head to Muskaan’s website to find out more about her!
Twitter: @MuskaanRazdan