Introducing the Judges
Third Space was launched on the 2nd of April 2024, with an open call for submissions for consideration for an anthology of South Asian poetry, scheduled for publication with Renard Press in July 2024.
Today we are delighted to announce the judges on the project. They are:

Farhana Shaikh
Farhana Shaikh is a writer and publisher born in Leicester. She established Dahlia Books, a small press from the corner of her kitchen. Farhana won the Penguin/Travelex Next Great Travel Writer prize. She was longlisted for the Spread the Word Life Writing Prize for her memoir about growing up in 1980s Leicester. Her short play Risk was produced as part of Kali Theatre’s discovery programme and staged at Curve Leicester. Her first novel, No Place for a Young Woman, was longlisted in the Women’s Prize/CBC Creative #Discoveries2023. Farhana teaches marketing at De Montfort University and runs the Middle Way Mentoring project. She can be found on X/Twitter talking about books and writing @farhanashaikh.

Navkiran Kaur Mann
Navkiran Kaur Mann is a writer and poet. She has performed for the Commonwealth Games in Dubai as part of the Queen’s Baton Relay, and for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Faith in Coventry Cathedral. Her poems have been displayed at London Bridge Railway Station through Apples and Snakes as well as the Pastoraal Informatiecentrum in Hasselt, Belgium. She is working on her first poetry collection. She is co-director of Thrive Poetry Festival, which develops and platforms under-represented artists in their mother tongue.

Reshma Ruia
Dr Reshma Ruia is a Manchester-based British writer of Indian origin. She has a PhD and Master’s in Creative Writing from Manchester University. Her first novel, Something Black in the Lentil Soup, was described in the Sunday Times as ‘a gem of straight-faced comedy’. She has published a poetry collection, A Dinner Party in the Home Counties, which won the 2019 Word Masala Award, and a short story collection, Mrs Pinto Drives to Happiness, shortlisted for the 2022 Eastern Eye ACTA Awards. Her new novel, Still Lives, won the 2023 Diverse Book Readers’ Choice Award and is longlisted for the 2023 People’s Book Award. Reshma’s work has appeared in anthologies and journals, and has been commissioned by the BBC, the University of Cumbria and Manchester Literature Festival. She is the co-founder of The Whole Kahani – a writers’ collective of British South Asian writers. Born in India and brought up in Italy, her writing explores the preoccupation of those who possess a multiple sense of belonging. You can find her on her website, reshmaruia.com, and on Twitter/X @ReshmaRuia.

Gita Ralleigh
Gita Ralleigh is a poet, writer and doctor born to Indian immigrant parents in London. She teaches creative writing to science undergraduates at Imperial College and has an MA in Creative Writing and an MSc in Medical Humanities. Her poetry books are A Terrible Thing (Bad Betty Press, 2020) and Siren (Broken Sleep Books, 2022). She is a member of the Kinara poetry collective and a trustee of literary charity Spread The Word. Her debut children’s novel The Destiny of Minou Moonshine was published by Zephyr/Bloomsbury in July 2023 and her second, The Voyage of Sam Singh, is forthcoming in July 2024. You can find her on Twitter as @storyvilled and on Instagram as @gita_ralleigh.
11th April 2024