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 is the author of eight poetry collections, including The terrorist at my table (2006), and Over the Moon (2014), which was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award. She received a Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. 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. In 2020, she was appointed Chancellor of Newcastle University. Following the publication of her most recent collection, Shadow Reader (2024), which was a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation, poet Benjamin J Larner spoke with Dharker about the relationship between words and images in her work, and casting new light on historical narratives.

Hala Alyan is a licensed clinical psychologist, professor at New York University, and writer. She is the author of the novel Salt Houses (2017), winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Arab American Book Award, and a finalist for the Chautauqua Prize. Her latest novel, The Arsonists’ City (2021), was a finalist for the 2022 Aspen Words Literary Prize. She is also the author of four award-winning collections of poetry, including The Twenty-Ninth Year (2019). Her work has been published in The New Yorker, The Academy of American Poets, LitHub, The New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn with her family. Following the release of her latest collection, The Moon That Turns You Back (2024), poet and critic Jennifer Lee Tsai spoke to Alyan about the roles of witness, catharsis, and commemoration in her poetry.

Tim Z Hernandez is an American writer, poet, and performer. His first poetry collection Skin Tax (2004) received the 2006 American Book Award and his debut novel Breathing in Dust (2010) was awarded the 2010 Premio Aztlán Literary Prize and was a finalist for the California Book Award. In 2014, he received the Colorado Book Award for his poetry collection Natural Takeover of Small Things (2013) and the International Latino Book Award for his historical fiction novel, Mañana Means Heaven (2013). Most recently he was recognized for his research on locating the victims of the 1948 plane wreck at Los Gatos Canyon, the incident made famous by Woody Guthrie’s song of the same name, which is chronicled in Hernandez’s documentary novel All They Will Call You (2017). Hernandez is currently an associate professor in the University of Texas at El Paso’s bilingual MFA in creative writing program. Following the publication of his latest collection, Some of the Light: New and Selected Poems (2023), he spoke to our Reviews Editor, Isabelle Baafi, about the role of witness and mindfulness in his work.

Victoria Chang is the author of The Trees Witness Everything (Copper Canyon Press, 2022), Dear Memory (Milkweed, 2021), and OBIT (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), which was named a New York Times Notable Book, a Time Must-Read Book, and received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Poetry, and the PEN/Voelcker Award. Her forthcoming book of poems, With My Back to the World, will be published in 2024 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. In the lead-up to her new collection, Jennifer Wong sat down with her to discuss how innovations of form and lyricism can bridge the layers of identity and grief.

Mohammed El-Kurd is an award-winning poet, journalist, and activist from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, Palestine. His work has been featured in the Guardian, the Nation, and Al Jazeera English. In September 2021, Mohammed, along with his twin sister Muna, was named one of the ‘The 100 Most Influential People of 2021’ by Time magazine. Rifqa (Haymarket Books, 2021) is his first poetry collection.

Selima and Julia first met in the Ladies toilets on the top floor of City Hall, London. They were there for the National Poetry Competition presentations in 2002, when Selima was part of the judging panel and Julia had been [...]

Sohini Basak: Ever since the pandemic broke out, I’ve so often come face to face with the inadequacy of words while grieving or trying to console a loved one. In that context, thank you so much for writing Outgoing Vessel, [...]

TL: Hi Major! I’d like to start off by asking, if poetry is a lamp that is present as we search for truth, what is one truth you keep rediscovering when writing your poems? MJ: One of the great problems [...]

To accompany this exclusive extract from John Ashbery’s Parallel Movement of the Hands, Dai George talks to the book’s editor, Emily Skillings DG: I’d like to start by thanking you, on behalf of all John Ashbery fans, for the wonderful work that you [...]

KO: I really loved the poem in the magazine and the energy in it. I was wondering if you could start with talking a little about ‘La Jena di Londra’ that appears in the Spring Issue? FL: I’ll try. This [...]

Jennifer Lee Tsai interviews Bhanu Kapil about the trajectory of her career to date JLT: I wonder if I could ask you about when and how you started writing? What is the purpose of writing and who do you feel you are writing [...]

AL: Hi Romalyn. How are you? What’s life like where you are? RA: It has been a tough 2020 for everybody. Lockdown happened when my editor and I were putting the finishing touches to Antiemetic for Homesickness. I continue to work [...]