Imtiaz Dharker (Manchester Art Gallery)

Imtiaz Dharker was commissioned by Manchester Literature Festival and Manchester Art Gallery to create a sequence of new poems responding to the New North and South programme of exhibitions celebrating the shared heritage of South Asia and the North of England. The work was performed in the galleries on Friday 20th October as part of the 2017 Manchester Literature Festival.

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 had a dozen solo exhibitions of her drawings in India, London, Leeds, New York and Hong Kong. She has published seven poetry collections with Bloodaxe including Postcards from god (including Purdah), Leaving Fingerprints, Luck Is the Hook and Shadow Reader, a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. She was awarded The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 2014 and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. 

You can download a PDF of Six Poems North and South and also listen to Imtiaz reading her poems here.