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.

A Sunday night, December 2011. I am in Camp Nou, home of FC Barcelona. I have managed to get amongst the socios, the hardcore fans, and am *this* close to the touchline that Lionel Messi is marauding up and down. [...]