Taz Rahman Writer

 How lovely to have read some poems from my upcoming 1st collection next year (Seren Books, February 2024, 'East of the Sun, West of the Moon') at the Casablanca Club. This was the start of a new poetry night in Cardiff Bay called 'Tiger Bay Poetry' and it was distinguished honour to have read with fellow Seren poet Wendy Allen and Poetry Wales published Gareth Writer-Davies.

A real pleasure to be reading in Llantwit Major at the These3Streams literary festival on Sunday, 11th June 2023 alongside local poet Sarah Persson.

I am beyond humbled to be part of the 2023 Hay Festival Writers at work. I shall be at the festival attending the programme of events:  https://www.hayfestival.com/wales/writers-at-work/ https://www.literaturewales.org/lw-news/hay-festival-announces-participants-for-its-writers-at-work-2023-programme-for-emerging-welsh-talent/ https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/2723333-writers-at-work Hay Festival 2023, Taz Rahman reading as part of Writers at Work Writers at work cohort at the Hay Festival 2023 with Douglas Stuart, Booker Prize winner Taz Rahman, Sophie Bouchilard & Connor Allen, Hay Festival 2023 Writers at Work

It was my privilege to have hosted the Poetry Wales magazine's Dylan Thomas Day 2023 celebration at Waterstones, Cardiff: Monday, 15th May. Poets featured - Des Mannay, John Freeman, Leigh Manley, Kathrine Stansfield, Christina Thatcher, Matthew Haigh & Suzanne Iuppa.

Editor Emily Trahair at 'Planet - The Welsh Internationalist magazine' has published my poem Sanctuary in the May issue. The poem is about the concept of refuge and hiraeth - a Welsh word meaning a specific longing for one's homeland. The front cover also features a photo I took as a photojournalist while covering the protest against Cardiff council's proposed cutbacks that would have threatened library and museum services.

Delighted to be reading in the write4word and Pen Cymru 'Welsh Writers Welcome the World' event at Narbeth Museum on 23rd March.

I shall be reading at the Old Murrenger, Newport's famous old literary venue on Wednesday 15th March. It would be a 40-minute set in total reading poems from my upcoming February 2024 first poetry collection from Seren Books.  Update: The photo below was taken by the photographer John Briggs at the Murrenger reading -  

Such an immense honour to have the Welsh language poetry magazine Barddas commission a translation of one of my poems into Welsh. The translator is the Eisteddfod-winning bard Osian Wyn Owen. Many thanks to Nia Morais , commissioner of 'New Voices' for the kind recommendation.

Delighted to be reading poems as the guest reader and supporting Poetry Wales editor Zoë Brigley's summer poetry retreat weekend at Literature Wales' Ty Newydd Creative Writing Centre.  I shall be reading on Wednesday evening (2nd August) from my upcoming 2024 first collection, as well as discussing my journey through the first poetry collection with Wales' biggest poetry publisher, Seren Books.  Full details about this course can be found at the Ty Newydd website: https://www.tynewydd.wales/course/retreat-editing-and-submitting-poems/

Being shortlisted for the Aesthetica Creative Writing prize was such an honour. All shortlisted poems and prose have been published in a beautiful anthology and it is a priviledge to be selected among the best of British poetry and literature. The 2023 Aesthetica Creative Writing Anthology is available  here  for purchase:

Anthropocene Poetry magazine has published two of my poems, 'Yashica 635' and 'Internal Reliquary':   https://www.anthropocenepoetry.org/post/2-poems-by-taz-rahman I am enormously grateful to the editor Charlie Baylis and deputy editor Aaron Kent for this acceptance back in April 2022 as the confidence of being accepted for publication at such an esteemed publication had allowed me to shape my voice in ways I did not think would be possible. Thank you. 

My poem 'Muktijodha' has been published in the latest issue of Poetry Wales - Winter 2022, Volume 58, Number 2. Many thanks to the guest editor Taylor Edmonds for publishing me in this special Partition themed issue.

Incredibly honoured to have my poem 'Teach Jackdaws Avionics' in the 2nd issue of the Propel Magazine. Propel was founded by Anthony Anaxagorou to showcase leading emerging poets who are yet to publish a first collection. Each issue has a guest editor and the 2nd issue was edited by Jeremy Noel-Todd: https://www.propelmagazine.co.uk/taz-rahman-teach-jackdaws-avionics  

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/