Vanessa Kisuule
Vanessa Kisuule is a writer and performer based in Bristol. She has won over ten slam titles. Her poem on the historic toppling of Edward Colston's statue 'Hollow' gained over 600,000 views on Twitter in three days. She has two poetry collections published by Burning Eye Books and her work was Highly Commended in the Forward Poetry Prize Anthology 2019.
She has written for publications including The Guardian, NME and Lonely Planet and is the co tutor for the Southbank New Poets Collective for 2021/2022.
She was the Bristol City Poet for 2018 - 2020.
Her book Neverland: The Pleasures and Perils of Fame was published by Canongate in 2024.
"One of the most interesting writers at work in this country today. An exhilarating stylist and a beautiful thinker" -- Max Porter
"Neverland is a brutal, brave and beautifully written book that asks uncomfortable questions and exposes uncomfortable truths. Nuanced, necessary and will start many conversations" -- Yomi Adegoke
"In Neverland, Vanessa Kisuule turns the intense, passionate gaze of the fan away from her object and back onto herself. Rather than asking the question can I still love this personal canonical figure in the knowledge of the harms they perpetrated?, Kisuule explores what we can learn about ourselves through our fandom. It's thrilling and rare to read a writer going at this inquiry with her teeth" -- Amy Key
"Neverland is a riveting and courageous exploration of idolisation and personal morality. With unflinching precision, Kisuule examines how cultural icons shape and sometimes distort our moral landscapes. She is a remarkable thinker who seeks to understand rather than judge. And a remarkable writer who conveys her message in thunderous prose" -- Nathan Filer
"The most human untangling of a complex and intricate love that I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Incisive, and as funny as it is sharp" -- Candice Carty-Williams
"A candid reflection on struggling to reconcile her love for Michael Jackson with the sexual abuse allegations against him . . . Kisuule brings a novel perspective to the discourse on loving problematic artists. This is a worthy complement to Margo Jefferson's On Michael Jackson" ― Publisher's Weekly
Books
