About Me

Cardiff based writer Taz Rahman's first poetry collection was published in February 2024 by Seren Books. He was part of the 2023 Hay Festival 'Writers at Work' programme, was shortlisted for the Aesthetica Creative Writing Prize 2022, and was also awarded a place in the Representing Wales writer development programme by Literature Wales in 2021. He is the reader's committee chair of the leading poetry magazine Poetry Wales, in the editorial team for climate emergency themed literary magazine Modron and serves as a peer-reviewer for the Wasafiri Magazine and the Books Council of Wales. He founded Wales' first Youtube poetry channel Just Another Poet in 2019 to widen access to poetry and poets. 

Publications: In addition to his first full length poetry collection published by Seren Books in February 2024, his poems have been published in multiple issues of Poetry Wales, Interpreter's House, Bad Lilies, Propel Magazine, Anthropocene Poetry, Acropolis Journal, South Bank Poetry, Honest Ulsterman, Abridged Magazine, Planet - The Welsh Internationalist, Barddas, The Lonely Crowd, Atrium Poetry, Acropolis Journal, Free Verse - Poems for Richard Price from Seren Books, and in ‘Gwrthryfel/Uprising’ An Anthology of Radical Poetry from Wales (Carreg Gwalch, 2022).

Festivals: His 2024 appearances are in Southampton Litfest 2024 by Artful Scribe (9th March), Cheltenham Poetry Festival (25th April), Aberystwyth Poetry Festival (4th-5th May). In 2023 he appeared at the Hay Festival, These3Streams Llantwit Major Festival and at the Harvest Party in St. Davids, Pembrokeshire, and at the 2022 Seren Cardiff Poetry Festival.

Literary Awards & Bursaries: He had been selected to be part of the Hay Festival 'Writers at Work' 2023, shortlisted for the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award 2022 for his poem 'Ramadan', a joint winner of the 2022 International Dylan Thomas Day poetry competition, and the 2021 Representing Wales writer development programme award by Literature Wales with mentorship from Poetry Wales editor Zoë Brigley. In 2020, he was selected as one of seven emerging poets by Literature Wales for a week-long poetry masterclass with Queen's Medal winning poet Gillian Clarke, and also by Writerz and Scribez for a six-week poetry mentorship with Forward Prize winner Caleb Femi.

Editorial: He is an editor of the climate emergency focused literary journal Modron alongside Zoë Brigley  and Kristian Evans. He has been serving as the chair of Poetry Wales magazine's Readers' Committee since September 2022. He is a poetry collection peer-reviewer for the Books Council of Wales and a regular reviewer for Poetry Wales and had recently read for the Acropolis Journal. 

 

Competition Judging: He was one of three judges for the inaugural Poetry Wales Pamphlet Competition 2021.

Biography: Taz Rahman spent his very early years in Dhaka, Bangladesh, attended school in Birmingham and university in Cardiff. He had lived in Cardiff for thirty years. He started writing poetry in 2019 and has also written short fiction, essays, reviews and plays. 

Just Another Poet: He founded the acclaimed Youtube poetry promotion channel 'Just Another Poet', which had received Wales Books Council's New Audience Funding (2022/23/24) and had won a Literature Wales commission (2020).

Other Creative & Editorial Associations: He had served on the advisory board of the community arts promotion organisation Head4Arts. As a professional photographer, his photographic depiction of political protests in South Wales have been featured in exhibitions and published national and international periodicals, and his fine art portraiture has been featured in group exhibitions for 'Made in Roath' in Cardiff, and in West Bromwich. 

General Interests: His major interests include climate change and preservation of habitats, the language of trauma, jazz and early classical music, historical and contemporary art, south-east Wales waterways, enlightenment philosophy, history of the late antique period, culinary flavours, cats and river fowls. He served as a volunteer listener for the Cardiff Samaritans for eight years and is passionate about supporting mental health awareness.   

Academic Education: He attended secondary school in Birmingham, West Midlands and subsequently pursued an undergraduate degree in philosophy at Cardiff University. He also has a master’s degree in social philosophy and ethics from the same institution, and had previously studied for another masters in religion in late antiquity.

Contact: https://tazrahman.blogspot.com/p/contact-me.html