Shadab Zeest Hashmi

Shadab Zeest Hashmi (born August 16, 1972) is a Pakistani-American poet. She graduated from Reed College in 1995 and received her MFA from Warren Wilson College. Her poetry has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Poetry International, Vallum, Atlanta Review, Nimrod, The Bitter Oleander, Journal of Postcolonial Writings, The Cortland Review, The Adirondack Review, New Millennium Writings, Universe: A United Nations of Poets, Drunken Boat, Split this Rock, Hubbub and many other places. Shadab Zeest Hashmi's essays on eastern poetic forms such as the Ghazal and Qasida have been published in the Journal of Contemporary World Literature, and her essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies and Knot magazine. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize multiple times, and has taught in the MFA program at San Diego State University as a writer-in-residence. Hashmi served as the editor of Magee Park Poets Anthology from 2000 to 2013. She is a columnist for 3 Quarks Daily.

In 2010, Poetic Matrix Press published Hashmi's book Baker of Tarifa, which won the 2011 San Diego Book Award for poetry. Baker of Tarifa is based on the history of Al Andalus (Muslim Spain) or Spain of the Middle ages, legendary for tolerance between Muslims, Jews and Christians. Baker of Tarifa was praised for both subject and style by the noted poet Sam Hamill in his review. Eleanor Wilner called Hashmi's poems "luminous." Shadab Zeest Hashmi's latest book Kohl & Chalk, which has been called "a prayer for peace" by Sandra Alcosser, received the San Diego Book Award 2014 and was featured in HuffPO's Video Reading Series: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anis-shivani/post_7022_b_4892281.html

Many of Shadab Zeest Hashmi's poems explore feminism, history and perspectives on Islam. She has been translated into Urdu and has been well reviewed by Pakistani critics as well. Muneeza Shamsie has called Shadab Zeest Hashmi "a powerful new voice." One reviewer writes: "Ms Hashmi has made herself a part of an essentially feminist tradition of Pakistani writing in English while striking a wonderfully fresh note."

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