Imtiaz Dharker grew up a 'Muslim Calvinist' in a Lahori household in Glasgow, was adopted by India and married into Wales. She is an accomplished artist and video filmmaker, and has seven poetry books with Bloodaxe, Postcards from god (including Purdah) (1997), I Speak for the Devil (2001), The terrorist at my table (2006), Leaving Fingerprints (2009), Over the Moon (2014), Luck Is the Hook (2018), and Shadow Reader (2024), a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. All her poetry collections are illustrated with her drawings, which form an integral part of the books; she is one of very few poet-artists to work in this way. She was awarded The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry for 2014, presented to her by HM Queen Elizabeth in 2015, and has also received a Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Over the Moon was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry 2014. Her poems are on the British GCSE and A Level English syllabus, and she reads with other poets at Poetry Live! events all over the country to more than 35,000 students a year. She has had a dozen solo exhibitions of drawings in India, London, Leeds, New York and Hong Kong. She scripts and directs films, many of them for non-government organisations in India, working in the area of shelter, education and health for women and children. In 2015 she appeared on the iconic BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs. In 2020 she was appointed Chancellor of Newcastle University. She lives in London.
Author photograph: Ayesha Dharker
Imtiaz Dharker: poems for schools
Imtiaz Dharker reads and introduces six of her poems, four of which have been or are studied in UK schools on a number of syllabuses. These are from four of her seven collections published by Bloodaxe: ‘They’ll say, ‘She must be from another country’’ (from I speak for the devil, 2001), ‘Living Space’ (Postcards from god, 1997), ‘Tissue’ (The terrorist at my table, 2006), ‘A century later’ (Over the Moon, 2014), ‘The right word’ (The terrorist at my table, 2006) and ‘Speech Balloon’ (Over the Moon, 2014). She often includes these poems when reading to Poetry Live audiences of school students.
