Fairoz

Moniza Alvi was born in Pakistan and grew up in Hertfordshire. After working for many years as a secondary school teacher in London, she is now a freelance writer and tutor, and lives in Wymondham, Norfolk. All her poetry is published by Bloodaxe. Her most recent titles are Fairoz (2022), Blackbird, Bye Bye (2018); her book-length poem, At the Time of Partition (2013); Homesick for the Earth, her versions of the French poet Jules Supervielle (2011); Europa (2008); and Split World: Poems 1990-2005 (2008), which includes poems from her five previous collections, The Country at My Shoulder (1993), A Bowl of Warm Air (1996), Carrying My Wife (2000), Souls (2002) and How the Stone Found Its Voice (2005). The Country at My Shoulder was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot and Whitbread poetry prizes, and Carrying My Wife was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Europa and At the Time of Partition were selected as Poetry Book Society Choices in 2008 and 2013 respectively and both were shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Moniza Alvi received a Cholmondeley Award in 2002. A collection of her poems was published in Italy by Donzelli Editore in their Poesia series in 2014, Un mondo diviso, translated by Paola Splendore.

• 11 Driving the devil away12 In the present tense14 Indoors16 Hair17 What do you do with a heap of stones?18 ‘It was a house of female habitation’20 Questions in the wood21 The Devil and the gleams22 The Devil’s soup23 The white cat24 Not enchantment25 In the morning26 Home27 Fairoz and Annat29 As summer30 School lunchtimes31 Listening to Fairoz and Tahir33 Pilgrims35 Does the Devil know what he is?36 The notice37 When they meet39 A story of God and the Devil40 Ripe41 Wolves-of-the-woods42 What runs under her skin43 She pictures Jannah44 Absent and present47 Her absences49 ‘where the swarm is thickest’51 The dark patch52 The plants53 It was long ago54 A conversation56 A punch58 Ice age59 He’s ‘v v sorry’60 The short long story61 The loping wolf62 A tale reduced to a sliver64 God’s eyelids65 This woman will speak to you, he says67 The bride68 Gone69 A task71 The viewing71 He was72 The contest73 A change75 Classroom scorpions77 Cherry stones78 Who’s there?79 DANGER81 The eye82 She’s heard nothing from Tahir83 Call him three times84 What’s real?85 The Devil’s news87 Witnesses89 In the snow90 Her whole life91 Urgent question92 Like a mark on her kameez93 What she’d like to say94 The room in her mind’s eye95 The woods96 Cold song97 Her future98 ‘Over every soul there is a watcher’99 My imagined Fairoz102 Notes and acknowledgements

She is a skilled storyteller, recounting the extraordinary in the voice of the everyday, so that we accept the miraculous as something we need… the overriding impression is of a deft, restrained language carrying ideas with a metaphysical wit and seriousness.