Jamal Mehmood is a writer and filmmaker based in London. He works across poetry, short fiction and essays. His work has appeared on BBC4, Popula and Magma and he has been shortlisted for the Outspoken Prize for Poetry in Film. His latest book ‘The Leaf of the Neem Tree’ is published by Hajar Press.
The Leaf of the Neem Tree
2021
‘A beautiful, intimate collection … Mehmood writes with soft grace and an unfaltering belief in divine benevolence, allowing us to clean the blood and imagine a better world.’ — Hussein Kesvani, author of Follow Me, Akhi
‘Willing to bear witness to the sacred in the everyday, Mehmood writes with unwavering humility of God, of grief, of grace.’ — Victoria Adukwei Bulley, author of Girl B
‘In the homes so brilliantly illustrated in these poems, there is refuge, comfort and joy.’ — Gboyega Odubanjo, author of While I Yet Live
‘Stirringly compassionate … somehow captures the sentiment of Urdu poetry in the context of British capitalism’s brutalising drudgery.’ — Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan, author of Postcolonial Banter
‘What if writing drew a circle around us … whispered aloud, and said in our hearts, both at once—to clean the blood, yes. This is that, written in a vernacular for us as we sit in our cities, dreaming of burning palms.’ — Zarina Muhammad, The White Pube
“A meditative collection of poems and short stories, contemplating turbulence and repose.”
Muriid (film)
2021
Jamal Mehmood – Writer & Director
Nikta Mohammadi – Producer
Maaria Lohiya – Director of Photography
Ayodapo Aiyeola – Assistant Camera
Zia Ahmed – Actor
Rei Sky – Score
Director on two and co-director on one of the shorts in this mini-documentary.
