Imtiaz Dharker

Imtiaz Dharker was born in Pakistan, grew up in Glasgow, and now lives between London and Mumbai. She works as a documentary film-maker in India, and is also an artist who has had solo exhibitions in the UK, India and Hong Kong. Her numerous poetry collections, published by Bloodaxe Books in the UK and Oxford University Press and Penguin in India, include: Purdah and Other Poems (1989); Postcards from god (1997); I speak for the devil (2001); The Terrorist at My Table (2006); Leaving Fingerprints (2009); Over the Moon (2014),  shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award; Luck is the Hook (2018); and Shadow Reader (2024), a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. Imtiaz received the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2014 and was recognised in the 2025 New Year’s Honours List with an OBE for services to the Arts. She lives in London.