Tarfia Faizullah
Tarfia Faizullah | |
|---|---|
 Faizullah at the 2018 Texas Book Festival | |
| Born | 1980 Brooklyn, New York City |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Virginia Commonwealth University |
| Genre | Poetry |
| Website | |
| www | |
Tarfia Faizullah is a Bangladeshi American poet. Born in 1980, she was raised in West Texas. She traveled to Bangladesh in 2010 to interview survivors of rape by Pakistani soldiers during the 1971 Liberation War, the birangona. Seam (SIU, 2014), her first book, was a collection of poems that were inspired by the many interviews she had with the birangona; and won the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition Awards[1] Her writing has also appeared widely in media across the US and abroad and has appeared in many journalistic media such as BuzzFeed.[2] In 2016, Harvard Law School included Faizullah in their list of 50 Women Inspiring Change[3]
Life
[edit]Tarfia Faizullah is a Bengali American poet. Born in 1980 in Brooklyn, New York City; she was raised in Midland,[4] Texas. She earned an MFA from the Virginia Commonwealth University program in creative writing. In 2006, after attending a poetry panel at the University of Texas at Austin which featured the Bengali author Mahmud Rahman. He had translated an excerpt of a novel, Talaash, by a writer named Shaheen Akhtar, which described the life of a woman who had been raped by Pakistani soldiers during the 1971 Liberation War. This historical event inspired her to begin researching the women affected by it. After applying and receiving a Fulbright scholarship, she traveled to Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2010 to interview survivors of these atrocities, whom the Bengali government has dubbed birangona. Seam (SIU, 2014), her first book, was a collection of poems that were inspired by the many interviews she had with the birangona.[5] Her second book, Registers of Illuminated Villages (Graywolf Press, 2018), was in development for 15 years and discusses many personal themes; it interrogates questions of memory, faith and locations beyond Bangladesh.[3] Until 2019 she served at the University of Michigan's Helen Zell Writers’ Program as the Nicholas Delbanco Visiting Professor in Poetry.[6]
Works
[edit]- Seam, Southern Illinois University Press, 2014, ISBN 9780809333257
- Registers of Illuminated Villages: Poems, Gray Wolf Press, 2018, ISBN 9781555978006
In Anthology
- Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology, University of Georgia Press, 2018, ISBN 9780820353159
- Halal If You Hear Me Haymarket, 2019, ISBN 9781608466047
Awards
[edit]- Associated Writers Program Intro Journals Award[7]
- Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Prize[8]
- Copper Nickel Poetry Contest (2012)[9]
- Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference Margaret Bridgman Scholarship in Poetry[10]
- Sewanee Writers’ Conference scholarship[11]
- Fulbright fellowship[12]
- Three Pushcart Prizes[13]
- 'Ploughshares’ Cohen Award.[14]
- Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition Awards[15]
References
[edit]- ^ "A Conversation with Tarfia Faizullah – Lantern Review Blog".
- ^ Faizullah, Tarfia (2016-08-04). "Poem: "Aubade With Sage And Lemon" By Tarfia Faizullah". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2023-06-21.
- ^ a b "2017 Poetry Month: An Interview with Tarfia Faizullah". HuffPost. 2017-04-14. Retrieved 2023-06-21.
- ^ "Poet Tarfia Faizullah recalls her journey from Midland to the world". 22 April 2016.
- ^ "The Paris Review - An Interview with Tarfia Faizullah". 10 February 2014.
- ^ "Poet Tarfia Faizullah recalls her journey from Midland to the world". 22 April 2016.
- ^ "Tarfia Faizullah | Blackbird v12n2 | #features".
- ^ "Tarfia Faizullah | Blackbird v12n2 | #features".
- ^ "Tarfia Faizullah | Blackbird v12n2 | #features".
- ^ "Tarfia Faizullah | Blackbird v12n2 | #features".
- ^ "Tarfia Faizullah | Blackbird v12n2 | #features".
- ^ "The Paris Review - An Interview with Tarfia Faizullah". 10 February 2014.
- ^ "Tarfia Faizullah | Blackbird v12n2 | #features".
- ^ "Issues | Ploughshares".
- ^ "A Conversation with Tarfia Faizullah – Lantern Review Blog".
External links
[edit]
- Sean Carman (February 10, 2014). "Everything Is Near and Unforgotten: An Interview with Tarfia Faizullah". The Paris Review.
- "Tarfia Faizullah". Poetry Foundation. 21 March 2022.
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