Child: New and Selected Poems 1991–2011

by Mimi Khalvati

As it journeys through the author’s life, this collection by Anglo-Iranian poet Mimi Khalvati explores childhood, motherhood, loss, eroticism, and the natural world. Lyrical and resonant, this compilation—haunted by the child-self that is never quite left behind—combines some essential selections of Khalvati’s previous work with new poems. The poems feature traditional forms as well as experiments with the Ghazal, an ancient Persian form comprised of an unrhymed couplet.

Genres: Poetry

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Mimi Khalvati was born in Tehran, Iran. She grew up on the Isle of Wight, where she attended boarding school from the age of six, and has lived most of her life in England. She trained at Drama Centre London and has worked as an actor and director in the UK and Iran.

She has published eight collections of poetry with Carcanet Press, including The Weather Wheel, The Meanest Flower, a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, a Financial Times Book of the Year, and shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize and, most recently, Child: New and Selected Poems 1991-2011, a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. Her work has been translated into nine languages and she received a Cholmondeley Award in 2006. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Mimi is the founder of The Poetry School and was the Coordinator from 1997–2004. She is a core tutor for the School and has co-edited its three anthologies of new writing published by Enitharmon Press.

She is also a freelance poetry tutor and has worked with arts organisations such as the Arvon Foundation and the South Bank Centre and has taught at universities in the UK, Europe and America.

Reviews

[J.G. Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book with a well-chosen selection from Mimi Khalvati's previous collections, and a generous amount of new poems. It is the book you should reach for if you want to start reading her incredible poetry. I go back to it often, and cannot recommend it highly enough.