Imtiaz Dharker

Imtiaz Dharker is a British poet, artist and video film maker. She has won the Queen’s Gold Medal for her English poetry[1][2] and was appointed Chancellor of Newcastle University from January 2020.[3] In 2019 she was considered for the position of Poet Laureate following the tenure of Carol Ann Duffy, but withdrew herself from contention in order, as she stated, to maintain focus on her writing.“I had to weigh the privacy I need to write poems against the demands of a public role. The poems won,” said Dharker. [4] For many Dharker is seen as one of Britain's most inspirational contemporary poets.[5] She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2011.[6] In the same year, she received the Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors.[7] In 2016 she received an Honorary Doctorate from SOAS University of London.

Imtiaz Dharker
Dharker at the British Library 12 April no
Chancellor of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne
In office
1 January 2020
Preceded byLiam Donaldson
Personal details
Born (1954-01-31) January 31, 1954
Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
NationalityBritish
OccupationPoet, artist
Known forfamous poems like the trick, speech balloon and many other poems and books

Dharker was born in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. She grew up in Glasgow where her family moved when she was less than one year old. She was married to Simon Powell, the founder of the organisation Poetry Live, who died in October 2009 after surviving for eleven years with cancer.[1][8] Dharker divides her time between London, Wales, and Mumbai. She says she describes herself as a "Scottish Muslim Calvinist" adopted by India and married into Wales.[9] Her daughter Ayesha Dharker (whose father is Anil Dharker) is an actress in international films, television and stage.[10]

Literary career

Dharker has written seven books of poetry: Purdah (1989), Postcards from God (1997), I Speak for the Devil (2001), The Terrorist at my Table (2006), Leaving Fingerprints (2009), Over the Moon (2014) and Luck is the Hook (2018), all self-illustrated).[11]

Dharker is a prescribed poet on the British AQA GCSE English syllabus. Her poems Blessing, This Room and The right word were included in the AQA Anthology Different Cultures, Cluster 1 and 2 respectively. Her poem Tissue appears in the 2017 AQA poetry anthology for GCSE English Literature.[12] Her poems Living Space and In Wales, wanting to be Italian also appear in the Eduqas WJEC poetry anthology for GCSE English Literature.

Dharker was a member of the judging panel for the 2008 Manchester Poetry Prize, with Carol Ann Duffy and Gillian Clarke.In 2011 she judged the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award with the poet Glyn Maxwell.[13] In 2012 she was nominated a Parnassus Poet at the Festival of the World, hosted by the Southbank Centre as part of the Cultural Olympiad 2012, the largest poetry festival ever staged in the UK, bringing together poets from all the competing Olympic nations. She was the poet in residence at the Cambridge University Library in January–March 2013. In July 2015 she appeared on the popular BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs[14] and spoke about growing up in Glasgow and her decision to leave her family and elope to India, as well as her second marriage to the late Simon Powell.

Themes

The main themes of Dharker's poetry include home, freedom, journeys, geographical and cultural displacement, communal conflict and gender politics.[11] All her books are published by the poetry publishing house Bloodaxe Books. Her poems, true to her experience, are moving testaments of global living, intercultural identities, itinerant existence, and human relationships. Above all pre-dominant theme in her poetry is the, 'woman question' dealing with woman's selfhoods, woman's suppression, and the crying need for their liberation. Purdah And Other Poems deals with the various aspects of a Muslim woman's life where Dharker explores the idea of oppression and violence thought to be a product through the culture of purdah.

Film and illustration

Dharker is also a video film maker and has written and directed more than a hundred films and audio-visuals, centering on education, reproductive health and shelter for women and children. In 1980 she was awarded a Silver Lotus for a short film.[15] An accomplished artist, she has had 11 solo exhibitions of pen-and-ink drawings in India, Hong Kong, USA, UK, and France. An accomplished painter, Dharkar has illustrated all her anthologies with her own paintings.

Publications
  • Purdah (Oxford University Press, India, 1989)
  • Postcards from God (including Purdah) (Bloodaxe Books, 1997, ISBN 1-85224-407-0)
  • I Speak for the Devil (Bloodaxe Books, 2001, ISBN 978-1852245696; Penguin Books India, 2003)
  • The Terrorist at my Table (Bloodaxe Books, 2006, ISBN 1-85224-735-5; Penguin Books India 2007)
  • Leaving Fingerprints (Bloodaxe Books, 2009. ISBN 1-85224-849-1)
  • Over the Moon (Bloodaxe Books, 2014. ISBN 978-1780371207)
  • Luck is the Hook (Bloodaxe Books, 2018. ISBN 9781780372181)

References
  1. "Imtiaz Dharker awarded Queen's gold medal for poetry". The Guardian.com. 17 December 2014. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  2. http://vision.ae/views/my_dubai_imtiaz_dharker
  3. "Renowned poet Imtiaz Dharker named new Chancellor". Newcastle University. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  4. Flood, Alison (3 May 2019). "Hunt for next poet laureate still on as Imtiaz Dharker says no to job". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  5. AQA (2002). AQA Anthology 2005 onwards. Oxford University Press.
  6. "Current RSL Fellows". The Royal Society of Literature. Archived from the original on 2 October 2012. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  7. "The Cholmondeley Awards for Poets". The Society of Authors. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  8. "Imtiaz Dharker". GCSE Poetry Live!.
  9. Bose, Brinda (December 2007). "The (ubiquitous) f-word: musings on feminisms and censorships in South Asia". Contemporary Women's Writing. 1 (1–2): 14–23. doi:10.1093/cww/vpm012.
  10. "The Conversation". BBC World Service. BBC. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
  11. "Imtiaz Dharker". Poetry International Web. Retrieved 20 November 2006.
  12. "BBC Bitesize - GCSE English Literature - Tissue by Imtiaz Dharker - Revision 1". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  13. Helen Bowell. "Interview with Imtiaz Dharker, Poet and Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award Judge". The Poetry Society. Archived from the original on 14 July 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
  14. "BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Imtiaz Dharker, Imtiaz Dharker: 'Poetry makes it possible to live'". BBC. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  15. "Imtiaz Dharker". imtiazdharker.com. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
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