Taz Rahman Writer

I am humbled to have been shortlisted for the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award 2022 for my poem 'Ramadan'. The poem has also been published in the Bad Lilies magazine and can be read here Thank you, Aesthetica magazine. My poetry journey started at the beginning of 2019. There has been a pandemic in between to bring me closer to my ultimate solace - river banks, edge of lakes, pools of water with nature gawking at its own simple magnificence. The enormous privilege of being mentored by Poetry Wales editor Zoe Brigley, and the Representing Wales Award 2021 from Literature Wales, had allowed me to find the confidence that I simply did not possess at the onset of my writing journey in 2019. So this is an opportunity to thank both Zoe and Literature Wales, and all my friends and inspirations who have shown faith in this journey.  All the shortlisted poems and stories would be published in the 2023 Aesthetica Creative Writing Anthology available here  

 It was a real honour to have been invited to read at Storyville Books, Pontypridd on 26th October 2022. Many thanks to Rob Cullen for the invite and a real pleasure to be have read alongside Clare Potter and Patrick Jones.

I have signed the contract for my first full-length poetry collection 'East of the Sun, West of the Moon'  forthcoming in February 2024 from Seren Books:  https://www.serenbooks.com/newsentry/announcing-our-2023-24-poetry-list

 I am delighted to have been selected to be the new chair of the Reader's Committee for Poetry Wales. In this advisory role, I hope to support the editors and contribute ideas toward the reach of the magazine.

Bad Lilies is one of the foremost UK poetry magazines that started in 2021 and the names to have been published are the best in contemporary poetry. It is such an honour to have two of my poems 'Ramadan' and 'East of the Sun, West of the Moon' selected in 9, which came out today: https://ellipsoid-chicory-5j7d.squarespace.com/issue-nine

It was an absolute honour to be appearing alongside these stellar names at the Seren Cardiff Poetry Festival 29th to 31st July 2022 at the Atrium in Cardiff: The video was captured by a friend, I was reading on stage with Amy Wack and Rhian Edwards watching - Headline: First Thursday Showcase with Amy Wack FEATURING ABEER AMEER, SIMON BRINDLE, PAUL DEATON, KIM MOORE, STEPHEN PAYNE, ELIZABETH PARKER, TAZ RAHMAN, KATHERINE STANSFIELD, & CLAIRE WILLIAMSON. HOSTED BY RHIAN EDWARDS DATE: SATURDAY 30TH JULY TIME: 20:15 VENUE: THEATRE PRICE: £12.00 / £9.00 A LITTLE HISTORY… Amy Wack was the poetry editor of Seren for over 30 years. Not only did she kickstart the careers of many unknown poets, giving them their first publication break and turning them into household names; she also created First Thursday: New Poetry and Fiction at Chapter Arts Centre in Canton, Cardiff. First Thursday provided a monthly showcase for guest authors, as well as a lively ‘open mic’ segment, where poets were o...

 Once again an absolute delight to be published in Poetry Wales, one of the best UK poetry magazines. I reviewed two collected, Eric Ngalle Charles' first poetry collection 'Homelands', published by Seren Books and also 'Wild Correspondings, an eco-poetry soursebook, kin'd & kin'd.

My poem 'Animal Wall' an ode to the Cardiff City by a shapeshifting heron has been published in 'Maps & Rooms, Writing from Wales', by Lucent Dreaming. I also wrote most of the introduction to this anthology. It has been a huge honour to be part of the launch event at the Senedd (National Assembly for Wales). The book can be ordered from Lucent Dreaming: https://lucentdreaming.com/lucent-dreamings-first-book-available-to-preorder/ 

A tremendous honour to have been invited to read at the Senedd on 14th June as part of a Literature Wales showcase: 'Singing the Sun in Flight'. I read my poem 'Bread of Heaven' a winner of the 2022 Dylan Thomas Day 'Love the Words' competition in front of the Wales First Minister Mark Drakeford and other luminaries. The event was also the launch of the Lucent Dreaming published anthology 'Maps & Rooms', collating the writers who won the Representing Wales award 2021.   

Thanks very much to Lawrence Smart for inviting me to be the first featured poet for this wonderful Cardiff Poetry night held at the Moon club on Monday, 13th June, 2022 . (7 pm) This would be a 30-minute set by me reading some of my recently published or forthcoming poems in Poetry Wales, Anthropocene, Bad Lilies, and from the 2022 Dylan Thomas Day Prize-winning anthology 'Love the Wods'. The event is free but please arrive early as it is a small club (80 capacity?) and can get crowded for the big poetry nights. There is also an openmic for budding writers to sign up on the night The Moon Club is in Womanby Street, Cardiff, at the city's iconic music venue lane. https://www.facebook.com/events/595851621407035/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22group_featured_unit%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22group%22%7D]%2C%22ref_notif_type%22%3Anull%7D   

My poem 'Together Stronger' has been published in this important anthology edited by Mike Jenkins. The volume contains poems by some of Wales' foremost poets of today.

I have been invited by Poetry Wales to read in this evening (9th May 2022), it is a focus on innovative emerging poets with particular reference to Wales. The running order for this evening's event is: Taz Rahman reads poems Zoe & Graham Hartill discuss Chris Torrance Martin Yates reads poems   Rhea Seren Phillips reads poem Harry Lewis reads poem L Kiew reads poem Harriet Jae reads poem Zoe & Kristen Paul discuss experimental Welsh poetry Kandace Siobhan Walker reads Sadia Pineda Hameed reads The link to Eventbrite free tickets is below:  https://facebook.com/events/s/poetry-wales-spring-2022-innov/682081302904621/

Delighted to see the proof copy of the   Gwrthryfel/Uprising , An anthology of radical Welsh poetry, Edited by Mike Jenkins, 2022. My poem  'Together Stronger', which is about a Cardiff summer during the Euro 2016 football tournament.

Delighted to see the proof copy of my essay  'The Decisive Moment: Documenting Activism in the Digital Era of Citizen Journalism', which shall be in the  Land of Change , Stories of Struggle & Solidarity from Wales. Edited by Gemma June Howel. Culture Matters, 2022

Many thanks to the very fine and historic publication Honest Ulsterman for publishing my poem A Morning Walk in the February 2022 issue: https:/ /humag.co/poetry/a-morning-walk?fbclid=IwAR3l1jjLjSXU2AjLnhrcblVMAW3N1WGEjS0MiApRdarHGzffmfB8Kpd4Y9c

I am delighted to have been invited to be part of the advisory board for Head4Arts.  Head4Arts delivers inspiring participatory arts programmes that change the way people see themselves and the world around them with the aim of provideing participatory arts activities, creative learning programmes and memorable experiences that help people of all ages and abilities in the South East Wales Valleys to thrive individually and collectively.

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.