Price
$15.99
About This Book
It is quite remarkable that in her very first volume, Serpents Under my Veil, Asiya Zahoor sounds like an accomplished poet with reams of poems behind her. From Medusa to Yusuf and Zulekha, she cherry-picks what she wants from Greek or West Asian myth, and moulds it to her heart's desire. As helicopters fan civilizations on her head she flies with her verse, and most poems are stamped with her spontaneity. Her imagery is striking, for instance, Zulekha holds the moon as a mirror, what a wonderful image. Her very first poem in the book reminds me of Imtiaz Dharker. In her sombre moods, she mirrors her darkness, Kashmir's darkness, but seldom into despair. Even as she traverses a militarized zone where they lay barbed wire across my tongue, she wants to think of almond blossom. Indian poetry in English is richer for her arrival. - Keki N. Daruwalla
About The Author
Asiya Zahoor hails from Baramulla in North Kashmir where she taught literature. Asiya has written books and articles on migration, religion and psycholinguistics, as well as Caribbean and Kashmiri literature. Her poems have been translated into Arabic, French, Persian, Portuguese and Urdu. Her film, The Stitch, won the Critics Award for Best Short Film at the 2nd South Asian Film Festival and has been screened at various festivals around the world. She is the curator of www.bolbosh.net, a website that documents languages and literature of Kashmir where she was born and raised. Asiya Zahoor studied Psycholinguistics at Oxford University and has recently been awarded The Sanford Taylor fellowship at Cornell University.
Tethys Books
Tethys Books is an independent imprint publishing original creative writing and quality translations into Indian languages, including English. We are delighted to bring Indian literature to the world via translation. We have recently launched AfterWord: Voices in Translation for Print, Podcast and Periodicals.
