Shadow Reader

Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, 2014

Poetry Book Society Special Commendation

Shadow Reader is a radiant criss-cross of encounters, messages and Punjabi proverbs, shot through with the dark thread of an unwelcome prophecy. The poems bind this looming curse to the occupation of countries, the earth and its creatures, those who own the story and those who redirect it through art or artifice. ‘Does the warp look back at the one who is weaving and say, This is not how I remember it…?’

Imtiaz Dharker’s collection pays attention to wilful erasures, exclusions and also to places of sanctuary. This is poetry as music, as momentum, as the texture and taste of languages, joyously sensuous and rich in images. While it acknowledges the everyday and its shadows, it is also an irreverent, playful celebration of life.

Imtiaz Dharker grew up a 'Muslim Calvinist' in a Lahori household in Glasgow, was adopted by India and married into Wales. She was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry 2014 for her fifth collection Over the Moon and for her services to poetry. Her main themes are drawn from a life of transitions: childhood, exile, journeying, home, displacement, religious strife and terror, and latterly, grief. She is also an accomplished artist, and all her collections are illustrated with her drawings, which form an integral part of her books.

With 16 black and white drawings

'Weaving between her distinctive illustrations and powerful poems, Dharker expresses the most profound concern for humanity.' – Jo Clement, PBS Selector, Poetry Book Society Summer Bulletin 2024, on Shadow Reader

‘I think she’s one of the world’s greatest contemporary poets.’ – Nikki Bedi, introducing Imtiaz Dharker on BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live

'If you’re not a regular reader of poetry, Imtiaz Dharker gives you a place to start. Shadow Reader, her seventh collection from Bloodaxe, is not only easily accessible, but also hauntingly relevant in this time of war and displacement [...] With clever but not intrusive rhyme and rhythm these are poems to read aloud. And while there’s no hiding from the world’s reality […] ultimately Dharker’s poetry is a gesture of hope. “When you open the book, it opens you.”' – Graeme Richardson, The Sunday Times (Summer poetry round-up)

'The motif of weaving holds together form and theme with a tantalising sense of skilful improvisation, nowhere more so than in ‘Loom’ where the women’s art is intensely embodied [...] Shadow Reader is a thought-provoking, delightful collection from the skilled hands of an expert weaver.' – Theresa Sowerby, Orbis

‘…terrific, transcendent poems, which go from grit to heart, sorrow to song, and all between. It’s a stunner of a collection…’ – Mab Jones, Buzz Magazine, on Shadow Reader

‘Imtiaz Dharker's Shadow Reader is a joy. I admire poetry which draws on the political. Imtiaz's poems do this so well […] Her work always comes from a fresh angle […] Poetry of empathy, love & revelation.’ – Katrina Naomi, Short & Sweet (Recommended Read for July 2024)

‘Imtiaz Dharker’s poetry shines a light in the dark. She is interested in how things work, in art, in history, in politics… You cannot hear her perform without being somehow transformed by the experience. Witty, wise, profound and moving, her work crosses continents.’ – Jackie Kay, The Guardian

‘This week's poem is by globally acclaimed poet, artist and filmmaker Imtiaz Dharker, who grew up in a Lahori household in Glasgow, was adopted by India and married into Wales. This is from her new collection Shadow Reader, which nods to exclusions and erasures, as well as being a playful celebration of life in all its glory; full of joyous language and rich imagery.’ – The Scotsman, Poem of the Week, on ‘Back’ from Shadow Reader

‘Despite the mischievous title, “Swiping Left on Larkin” is a sincere love letter to the quietly despairing tone of Larkin’s poetry (“all roads lead to a leaving” could almost be one of his own aphorisms). More than half the lines end on an unstressed syllable, giving the poem a falling cadence – it’s one long sigh.' – Tristram Fane Saunders, The Telegraph, Poem of the Week

‘… Dharker embarks on a looping, exploratory journey which is both an oblique autobiography and an examination of the state of the world in what was foretold to be her last year in it. The fairly plain style of these poems and their informal, often conversational tone, serve to draw the reader gently in among the dazzling range and variety of imagery and reference Dharker explores, from art to daily life, from mythology to the internet, from history to its present-day reverberations. [...] This is a rich collection [...] there is a lot to learn here, and to savour.' – Judith Taylor, The High Window

‘This is a passionate, uplifting collection of poems about language, love and loss, grief and joy, elegy and celebration. The loss of a great love makes poems of piercing beauty. In her finest book to date, Imtiaz Dharker finds resolution in language itself, and in a world the more loved for the sharpness of loss.’ – Gillian Clarke [on Over the Moon]

'Imtiaz Dharker's new collection is the crown to a celebratory, humane, wholly utterable, subtly crafted poetry. Its dark jewels are the magnificent poems of bereavement, which will surely endure. Reading her, one feels that were there to be a World Laureate, Imtiaz Dharker would be the only candidate.' – Carol Ann Duffy[on Over the Moon]

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 The Queen in Spring 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.