Taz Rahman Writer

Such a pleasure to have this long article on my cultural highlights of 2021 published in Culture Cymru on New Year's Day:  https://nation.cymru/culture/best-of-2021-a-selection-of-cultural-highlights-from-the-last-12-months-by-taz-rahman/?fbclid=IwAR27c-n5PCN2_21-CTt73fZmsq_cvKnPcikNIUy-oQVCD_40OxwuqJDz0JQ

 I am honoured to have my poem 'Chocolate' published in Poetry Wales. It is also humbling to see my name on the front page mentioned alongside some of the best-known contemporary poets. A live reading of 'Chocolate' from a Mike Jenkins hosted Red Poets night is in the video below:

I am immensely honored to have been approached by the Books Council of Wales to be a peer-reviewer for poetry collections applying for publication grants. The association brings the opportunity to really ingratiate with the best of contemporary poetry at the cusp of publication, so I can't wait to get started. I am grateful to the writer Katherine Stansfield for the kind recommendation. 

Last night was my first physical poetry reading since early March 2020! Even more daunting that the evening featured 'Wales Book of the Year' winner Catrin Kean, former winners of that prize, poet MIke Jenkins, and also the likes of Erin Ngalle Charles and Des Manay! A recording of the whole evening featuring all the poets has now been uploaded to Just Another Poet Wales Youtube channel: Here is a shorter recording of the segment of two poems I read, Linger and Chocolate:

 It is such an honour to be one of the three judges for this year's Poetry Wales Pamphlet competition ! I can't wait to sift through and discuss the wonderful poetry with my fellow judges Matthew Haigh and Nia Morais.

 It was a real pleasure to have reviewed Abeer Ameer's stunning collection Inhale/Exile and Isabelle Baafi's pamphlet Ripe for the summer edition of Poetry Wales. Thank you Zoe Brigley for accepting my review.

Jenny Elise has selected my short story 'Glamorous Night' as the main feature of her first Story Time series of fundraiser reads! Glamorous Night is a story of love and loss set in Cardiff, South Wales and centres on the subtext of why a homeless man walks to an Ivor Novello sculpture overlooking the Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay every day. The recording is in the link below, 'Glamourous Night' starts 39 minutes into the session:   https://www.facebook.com/jennipherelise/videos/10159169615441029/  

I am delighted to announce that I am one of the 12 selected writers for the 2021 Literature Wales writer development award . It is a tremendous honour to be in this wonderfully talented group that includes national writing award-winning poets and writers.  Alongside the yearlong masterclasses and workshops with noted professionals from the writing and publishing world, I get the opportunity to work with multi-award-winnning poet and writer Zoë Brigley as my mentor. I am planning to use the mentorship and support to develop my poetry and short fiction, submit to more publications with the eventual aim of working towards future collections.

 I am thrilled to bits that Jonathan Edwards has selected my poem 'Butter' for the final issue of Poetry Wales under his editorship.  Here is a reading of the poem: Here is the poem:

I am delighted to have had a poem selected for the South Bank Poetry magazine Issue Thirty Three and Four. The editor selected the poem 'Seamstress'. Here is a video of me reading the poem:

 I feel so privileged and honoured to have been selected for a week long masterclass with one of the best known British poets of the last forty years, Gillian Clarke!  ----------------------------------------------------------- To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Tŷ Newydd as the National Writing Centre of Wales, Literature Wales is delighted to announce the names of the seven poets who are joining Gillian Clarke, former National Poet of Wales and one of Centre’s founders, on our first-ever Digital Poetry Masterclass. The course, which takes place from 15 – 19 June 2020:  https://www.tynewydd.wales/blog/seven-poets-awarded-a-place-on-our-digital-poetry-masterclass-with-gillian-clarke/ The Voices Anthology is the selection of poem written by the seven poets during the week long masterclass:  https://issuu.com/leusafflur/docs/voices_anthology.docx

I am delighted to have been selected for the 2020 Griot’s Well Writer Development Programme with Writerz and Scribez . The six-week poetry masterclass is being run by poet and former London Laureate Caleb Femi (Debut collection Poor , 2020, Penguin).

I am thrilled and honoured to be one of the recipients of the first round of commissions announced by Literature Wales in response to Covid19 lockdown. My proposal was to organise two virtual poetry nights through my youtube channel Just Another Poet Wales and feature interviews with a number of Welsh poets. Details of the proposal can be seen on the Literature Wales website:  https://www.literaturewales.org/our-projects/lwcommissions/taz-rahman/ The virtual poetry nights an the interviews can be seen on my Youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiFKAIVPhbk-D2gEFxo8tWA?view_as=subscriber

 I am delighted to among the 30 poets selected for the 2020 International Dylan Thomas Day anthology 'Love the Words'. The competition was judged by award-winning Cardiff poet Mab Jones.  A PDF of the pamphlet is available here:  https://www.discoverdylanthomas.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Love-The-Words-Winners-Anthology-for-Dylan-Day-2020-FINALagain.pdf  

My play Ithaka is being performed at The Gate Arts Centre in Cardiff. It is as part of the annual showcase of plays for Tuesday Night Writes writer's group. The play is about an imagined conversation between Penelope and Odysseus before the latter embarks on the voyage to join the Greek fleet on the eve of Trojan War.   In 2018, my play Three Sisters was also performed at The Gate Arts Centre in Cardiff. This play was about an imagined conversation between three ancient goddess figurines from the pre-Islamic pantheon of Arabic gods about the beheading of the director of antiquities of Palmyra museum in Syria in 2017.