Jessica Reidy’s writings depict, among other things, the perpetuation of violence and discrimination against Roma – from her grandmother fleeing the Nazis to the rock-throwing and name-calling that plagued Reidy as a child on the school playground to the continued stereotypes arising in conversations when Reidy reveals that she has Romani roots.

Reidy fuses historical events with autobiographically influenced stories. Her poem ‘Murder and tradition’ is based on the horrific photographs published in the media of two drowned Romani girls amid sunbathers on the Torregaveta beach near the Romani camps in Naples, Italy in 2008.

Source of sample text

Reidy, Jessica (2014). ‘Murder and tradition’, in Infoxicated Corner: Political Punch: Poems by Jessica Reidy