Poetry. Middle Eastern Studies. "Al Andalus—a unique cultural convergence in human time where myth hovers the way moths are drawn to lampshine, and in her luminous, spare language, Shadab Zeest Hashmi catches its essence: attar of memory, the perfume of peace, sweet rising dough of dailiness; at the end, smoke rising, the reek of war, useless keys, exile, sorrow distilled and deepened by the presence—in these deeply felt, lovely poems—of what feels newly lost"—Eleanor Wilner.

Author City: CARLSBAD, CA USA

Shadab Zeest Hashmi is the editor of the annual Magee Park Poets Anthology. She graduated from Reed College in 1995 where she completed "Passage Work," a creative thesis comprising poems that explore the impact of British colonialism on the culture of her native Pakistan. Her poems have appeared in New Millennium Writings, Hubbub, Poetry Conspiracy, The Bitter Oleander, Nimrod International and Pakistani Literature. Her work has also appeared online, in poetsagainstthewar.org and the online publication of Poetic Matrix. In 2007, she won the Andalusia Prize for Literature, in 2004 she received the Stout Award for one of the poems published in Hubbub and was invited as the Laurie Okuma guest poet at San Diego State University. She won the SAARC medal for literature in 1991. She holds an MFA from Warren Wilson.

Reviews and Other Links
author site
Sam Hamill @ Ron Slate's On the Seawall