Sun Dips at Juhu Beach

Asit Maitra: Biography

Asit Maitra, FRCS, MA (Creative Writing), NCL University, Emeritus A&E consultant, Newcastle NHS Hospitals Trust. His poems have appeared in:

• His chapbook, Chapati-Moon (ID on Tyne, 2007)
• A pamphlet, ZIG-ZAGS, with Pat Borthwick
• In Acumen (1997), Other Poetry (2002) and Anthologies: Norwich OPC (2004)
• The Redbeck Anthology of British South Asian Poetry (2000)
• Masala: Chosen - Poems from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka (Macmillan children's books, 2005)
• The Ticking Crocodile (Blinking Eye Poetry Competition anthology, 2004)

"An Emeritus A & E consultant in Newcastle, Asit Maitra has also been writing serious poetry, especially after the grip of Medicine on him loosened several years ago. I have had the privilege of reading his poetry, and of noting how engagingly the medical specialist depicts day-to-day matters, world issues, and other subjects that disturb him deeply. In this unique selection Maitra revisits his homeland and Mumbai; he writes with delicacy the stories of childhood and the relationship with his father. The experience of the medical specialist in the UK allows us to gaze through the poet’s wide range of relations with patients, doctors, nurses, love, death... These passionate and honest poems portray that unique voice of an Asian British writer – these poems are priceless."

Jack Mapanje

"Sun Dips at Juhu Beach is one of those rare collections of poetry which like a thrilling novel, once you’ve started it, you can’t put down. Maitra’s voice is at once haunting and gentle, his simple, natural style wrapping the often sharp content of his verse, making it a delight to unpack. For example, the delicate slightly uneasy relationship with his father unfolds in ‘The Beggar at the Beach’ where he is always ‘running to catch up with dad’. In many of his poems we hear of a child’s longing for his father to have spent more time with him and the poignancy of history repeating itself in ‘Cast-Offs’ is incredibly touching. Maitra collides the two cultures he straddles in a wonderful poem, ‘Ghoom (Sleep) Monastery’ when having said he could ‘live there’ is reminded that he couldn’t because he’d miss his central heating. He goes on to resolve his conflict beautifully in ‘My Favourite Rivers’ merging the Ganga with the Tyne.

"Maitra has been able to cast a poet’s eye over his life. It strikes me that whatever course his life might have taken, he would have done the same, and there is something in his turn of phrase, his way of looking at and assessing things that are truly part of his inner being."

Maureen Almond

"There is a strong narrative element in Asit Maitra’s poetry. He gives us sharply focused images, small details which bring alive situations, relationships and feelings. With a light touch he draws us into his world, painting his pictures of India with the same clear definition as those of the North-east. His is a humane vision. He writes with poise and discipline but always with a tenderness of heart."

Cynthia Fuller

There was an incredibly large turnout at the Lit & Phil Library for Asit Maitra's Sun Dips at Juhu Beach book launch. Incredible considering that the European Football Cup Final was taking place on the same evening. And the audience members were not all women! Two that were, were poet Cynthia Fuller, and novel and short fiction writer Gillian Garnham. It was good to spot them in the front row.

Asit gave an accomplished reading performance, introducing each of his poems with fascinating background facts.

Roger Cornwell and Jean Rogers of Cornwell Internet (web design and management) attended the event, and Roger rounded off the evening by presenting Asit with a framed cover picture of his book.

Asit is already in demand for further readings, with two booked in July, one at the Washington Probus Club that meets in the Washington Arms, and another at The Arts Centre Washington.

Anyone wanting to book Asit for a reading can make contact with him, in the first instance, via .

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