Final Collections

by Agha Shahid Ali

This volume comprises Agha Shahid Ali's (1949-2001) final two verse collections. In "Call Me Ishmael Tonight" the poet offers a new form - the Maerican ghazal - written as a salutation to his eminent poet contemporaries in the USA. In "Rooms Are Never Finished" the poet follows the trail of his previous collection titled "The Country Without a Post Office" in order to excavate the devastation wrought upon Kashmir, his childhood home.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Agha Shahid Ali (आगा शाहीद अली) was an American poet of Kashmiri ancestry and upbringing.

His poetry collections include A Walk Through the Yellow Pages, The Half-Inch Himalayas, A Nostalgist's Map of America, The Country Without a Post Office, Rooms Are Never Finished (finalist for the National Book Award, 2001). His last book was Call Me Ishmael Tonight, a collection of English ghazals. His poems are featured in American Alphabets: 25 Contemporary Poets (2006) and many other anthologies.

Ali was also a translator of Faiz Ahmed Faiz (The Rebel's Silhouette; Selected Poems) and editor (Ravishing DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English). He was widely credited for helping to popularize the ghazal form in America.

Ali taught at the MFA Program for Poets & Writers at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, as well as creative writing programs at University of Utah, Warren Wilson College and New York University. He died peacefully, in his sleep, of brain cancer in December, 2001. He was laid to rest in Northampton, Massachusetts.