Grieving Shias

by Raza Ali Hasan

"American English his adopted language, at home in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syracuse, N. Y., Raza Ali Hasan deals with material unavailable to any other poet I know writing in English. Without rank, without comrades, he has fought battles of the mind and spirit. The reader may hear music he does not recognize; perhaps it is of the subcontinent. The architecture is American fusion, Mughal, postcolonial, colonial, sometimes peasant, sometimes Syracuse motel. Ali Hasan does not play cricket; his often painfully beautiful poems do not play fair." --Stanley Moss

Genres: Poetry

47 pages, Paperback

First published June 10, 2006

About the author

Raza Ali Hasan is the author of two books, Grieving Shias (Sheep Meadow Press, 2006)
and 67 Mogul Miniatures (Autumn House Press, 2009). He was born in Chittagong, Bangladesh, and grew up in Indonesia and Islambad, Pakistan. He received his MFA from Syracuse University. His poems have appeared in AGNI, Shenandoah, Drunken Boat and Blackbird. He teaches in the English Department of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Reviews

[Peter Spaulding · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good. Esp “The Emerald Mosaque...” “Sher Shah Suri Road” “Scribes” and “The Clearing”.

Everything in these is sad, but it’s only explicit sometimes. Good to read for getting the idea of a collection: a coherent whole that isn’t monochrome.

Highly recommend.

[Wednesday · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ali is a great guy and writes wonderful poetry. There's a line in one of the poems I can recall (which is the sign of an inspired poetry, in my humble opinion). "Eternity has no need for scribes." Thoughtful. This collection takes you on a journey. I quite enjoyed it.

[Paul]

Review at asianamlitfans.