Javi Reddy

Javi Reddy’s creative writing career has seen him fortunate enough to have been published across the globe. His story ‘Sit Down; You’re Brown’ was awarded runner-up in the ‘The SA Writers College 2019 Annual Short Story Competition’. He then won the Grand Prize Winner in the international ‘Eyelands Magazine Short Story’ contest for 2019, for the story, ‘Marvin Baxter’s Background Music’. In 2020 and 2021, his short story ‘9 Suspects’ and poem 'Smoking During The Apocalypse were respectively published in international anthologies.

 He was then also awarded the best story in the WriteFluence 2021 competition for my short story, ‘The Chair’. His debut novel, ‘12 Yards Out’, which was being handled by a UK publishing house, was released in 2021. His dream is to have his work published and recognised on every continent in the world- with South America now being the only region outstanding on the list. 

Until then, he lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, trying to mind his own business, read a few books and write a few stories.

ARTISTS STATEMENT 

The pursuit of the divine masculine is often opposed by one of its major enemies- toxic masculinity. As society endeavours to display courage, strength, wisdom, and integrity, in both a non-gendered and noble manner, it is met with resistance from time to time. This resistance often comes in the form of alpha male thinking which is lathered in outdated and dangerous stereotypes.

As a man, I have gone on a journey of fighting these stereotypes my whole life, in an effort to carve out what divine masculinity could potentially look for me, so that I can try to unlock the best version of myself.

Some days I win the battle. Some days I succumb to the ‘toxic side’. This is one of life’s great balancing acts that I and many others take on, day after day. This particular poem entitled ‘Don’t’ is about that voice in the head that wants you to succumb to the toxic side. And by going through the thought process- makes us realise how important the divine masculine really is.

you can find out more and see his spoken word on https://www.reddmoon.org/