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Lovers, Liars, Conjurers and Thieves
Quiet, lulling, beguiling, and shocking, the poems in this collection explore the essential world of all things sensual. Reality is dissected in all its complex, tragic, and surreal forms. Playful and gruesome metaphors return again and again to themes of fire, ocean, moon, blood, and love. In sharply visioned images, the ironies of travel, the nonsense of religious exclusion and inclusion, and the politics that govern the world are explored.
- GenresPoetry
80 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2003
About the author
Raman Mundair
13 books2 followersRaman Mundair is a poet, writer, artist and playwright. She was born in Ludhiana, India and came to live in Manchester in England at the age of five.
Her poetry has been featured in Acumen, Poetry Scotland, Kavya Bharati and widely anthologized. She is the author of two volumes of poetry, A Choreographer’s Cartography and Lovers, Liars, Conjurers and Thieves – both published by Peepal Tree Press and the play The Algebra of Freedom, published by Aurora Metro Press. Her collection of short stories In the Light of Other was published in 2009.
In 2006 she collaborated with the National Theatre Scotland and Òran Mòr - A Play, A Pie, A Pint on Side Effects, a one-act play. In 2007 her play The Algebra of Freedom was produced to great acclaim by 7:84 Theatre Company.
As an artist she makes work that represents text and narrative in a visual form. Her work has been exhibited at the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, City Art Gallery, Leicester and Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin. In 2008 Mundair was nominated for the prestigious Rolex Mentor and Protégé Award.
In 2008 Mundair won a Robert Louis Stevenson Award and became a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellow at the Hotel Chevillon in Grez-sur-Loing, France. In this same year she was invited to become Scottish Poetry Library Poet Partner for East Dumbarton.
In 2007 she was awarded the Arts Council England International Fellowship at the India International Centre in Delhi and in 2006 Mundair was runner up in the Penguin Decibel Prize for Short Fiction.
The Independent newspaper wrote in a review of her work "Raman Mundair is a rare breed: a poet whose writing works on the page and the stage. Her readings reveal the secret music of the poem… Mundair is literature at its best: thoughtful, provocative and sharp."
Raman has been Writer in Residence in Stockholm, New Delhi, Glasgow and the Shetland Islands and has represented The British Council as a writer, workshop facilitator and performer internationally.
As an artist she makes work presenting text and narrative in a visual form. Her work has been exhibited at the Gallery of Modern Art Glasgow, City Art Gallery, Leicester and The Generator Gallery, Loughborough.
Raman Mundair’s poetry can be contextualized as part of the pioneering contemporary Black British poetry scene that includes Patience Agbabi and Dorothea Smartt, both of whom read at the Barbican Centre (London) launch of Mundair’s first collection of poems ‘Lovers, Liars, Conjurers and Thieves’ in 2003.
Mundair writes across genres: poetry, prose and plays. Her writing is iconoclastic, challenging and political in nature but rendered with a keen sense of poetics. She has described herself as an ‘outsider writer’ and that she has come to appreciate her various states of ‘unbelonging’ as they allow her to transcend the limits of boundaries and choose to ‘belong’ anywhere.
Mundair’s poetry has tackled varied themes including the deaths of Stephen Lawrence and Ricky Reel, the Iraq war, domestic violence, sexuality, gender, migration, immigration and the idea of ‘hidden histories’: where she imagines Queen Victoria’s relationship with her Sikh man servant, India maid servants in British India and Indian soldiers in the trenches during World War One. Equally she writes sensitively about intimacy, loss and the small, quiet but significant moments in life.
Mundair’s poetry is multi-lingual and although the primary language is English, she uses Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu and Shetland dialect to create an inter-textual narrative within the poems – something that she refers to as ‘windows into worlds within worlds within worlds’. Her work also flirts with traditional form and structural constraints. Mundair writes poetry that she says is designed to work on the page as well as to be performed on the stage.
Mundair’s work for theatre is often philosophical and
Her poetry has been featured in Acumen, Poetry Scotland, Kavya Bharati and widely anthologized. She is the author of two volumes of poetry, A Choreographer’s Cartography and Lovers, Liars, Conjurers and Thieves – both published by Peepal Tree Press and the play The Algebra of Freedom, published by Aurora Metro Press. Her collection of short stories In the Light of Other was published in 2009.
In 2006 she collaborated with the National Theatre Scotland and Òran Mòr - A Play, A Pie, A Pint on Side Effects, a one-act play. In 2007 her play The Algebra of Freedom was produced to great acclaim by 7:84 Theatre Company.
As an artist she makes work that represents text and narrative in a visual form. Her work has been exhibited at the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, City Art Gallery, Leicester and Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin. In 2008 Mundair was nominated for the prestigious Rolex Mentor and Protégé Award.
In 2008 Mundair won a Robert Louis Stevenson Award and became a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellow at the Hotel Chevillon in Grez-sur-Loing, France. In this same year she was invited to become Scottish Poetry Library Poet Partner for East Dumbarton.
In 2007 she was awarded the Arts Council England International Fellowship at the India International Centre in Delhi and in 2006 Mundair was runner up in the Penguin Decibel Prize for Short Fiction.
The Independent newspaper wrote in a review of her work "Raman Mundair is a rare breed: a poet whose writing works on the page and the stage. Her readings reveal the secret music of the poem… Mundair is literature at its best: thoughtful, provocative and sharp."
Raman has been Writer in Residence in Stockholm, New Delhi, Glasgow and the Shetland Islands and has represented The British Council as a writer, workshop facilitator and performer internationally.
As an artist she makes work presenting text and narrative in a visual form. Her work has been exhibited at the Gallery of Modern Art Glasgow, City Art Gallery, Leicester and The Generator Gallery, Loughborough.
Raman Mundair’s poetry can be contextualized as part of the pioneering contemporary Black British poetry scene that includes Patience Agbabi and Dorothea Smartt, both of whom read at the Barbican Centre (London) launch of Mundair’s first collection of poems ‘Lovers, Liars, Conjurers and Thieves’ in 2003.
Mundair writes across genres: poetry, prose and plays. Her writing is iconoclastic, challenging and political in nature but rendered with a keen sense of poetics. She has described herself as an ‘outsider writer’ and that she has come to appreciate her various states of ‘unbelonging’ as they allow her to transcend the limits of boundaries and choose to ‘belong’ anywhere.
Mundair’s poetry has tackled varied themes including the deaths of Stephen Lawrence and Ricky Reel, the Iraq war, domestic violence, sexuality, gender, migration, immigration and the idea of ‘hidden histories’: where she imagines Queen Victoria’s relationship with her Sikh man servant, India maid servants in British India and Indian soldiers in the trenches during World War One. Equally she writes sensitively about intimacy, loss and the small, quiet but significant moments in life.
Mundair’s poetry is multi-lingual and although the primary language is English, she uses Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu and Shetland dialect to create an inter-textual narrative within the poems – something that she refers to as ‘windows into worlds within worlds within worlds’. Her work also flirts with traditional form and structural constraints. Mundair writes poetry that she says is designed to work on the page as well as to be performed on the stage.
Mundair’s work for theatre is often philosophical and
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 6, 2018
Much as I enjoy poetry, I confess that I don't read it often. On a regular basis, I dive deeply into prose to quench what has proved to be a lifelong thirst for knowledge and entertainment. The happy result of these peregrinations into poetry and prose has been an abiding love and reverence for language and its subtle nuances.
So, in reading "LOVERS, LIARS, CONJURERS, AND THIEVES", I savored reading poems that spoke of "the intense joys of intimacy and love, and the pain of their rejections", as well as the wonder of travel, the impact of the 1947 Partition which gave rise to an independent India and the birth of Pakistan, and "a passionate concern with the body politic." There were also other poems that evoked the physical scars of domestic violence and racist murders in the UK. Not easy reading, but I appreciated being informed through metaphor and subtle allusion about these glaring injustices. One poem, in particular, held for me a special resonance because it said as much about myself as it did about its author. It is entitled "Tidal Moods" ---
"There are clear, still moments
luminous as an African sky
at night or at sea
when she calms
when I wonder
what governs me,
whether this centrifugal pull
is from a source rooted in the moon,
stars or simply hormones;
whether the magnet
moon is in cahoots with my seratonin --
or perhaps my seratonin seduces
the moon with the promise
of eternal, ecstatic bliss."
President Kennedy aptly summed it up when he said that "poetry reminds [mankind] of the richness and diversity of existence." This book of poems I recommend to anyone for its richness and diverse themes.
So, in reading "LOVERS, LIARS, CONJURERS, AND THIEVES", I savored reading poems that spoke of "the intense joys of intimacy and love, and the pain of their rejections", as well as the wonder of travel, the impact of the 1947 Partition which gave rise to an independent India and the birth of Pakistan, and "a passionate concern with the body politic." There were also other poems that evoked the physical scars of domestic violence and racist murders in the UK. Not easy reading, but I appreciated being informed through metaphor and subtle allusion about these glaring injustices. One poem, in particular, held for me a special resonance because it said as much about myself as it did about its author. It is entitled "Tidal Moods" ---
"There are clear, still moments
luminous as an African sky
at night or at sea
when she calms
when I wonder
what governs me,
whether this centrifugal pull
is from a source rooted in the moon,
stars or simply hormones;
whether the magnet
moon is in cahoots with my seratonin --
or perhaps my seratonin seduces
the moon with the promise
of eternal, ecstatic bliss."
President Kennedy aptly summed it up when he said that "poetry reminds [mankind] of the richness and diversity of existence." This book of poems I recommend to anyone for its richness and diverse themes.
September 26, 2023
'Last night a poet saved my life' is a wonderful poem. There are many other good poems here but that is my favourite.
I love the ambiguity of the section titles, and there's a striking humanity in this collection. The poet covers an awful lot of ground, and the journey is intense, but important. Go on it. I really don't think you'll regret it. Plus the ending is fantastic.
I love the ambiguity of the section titles, and there's a striking humanity in this collection. The poet covers an awful lot of ground, and the journey is intense, but important. Go on it. I really don't think you'll regret it. Plus the ending is fantastic.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews