Drawing By poet Reza Mohammadi
Featuring: Hamid Kabir, Reza Mohammadi, Nick Laird
Reza Mohammadi is an Afghan journalist, critic and poet, whose three collections of poetry have won many prizes for his poetry in Persian-speaking countries. He is the winner of prizes for the best poem published in 1996 and 1997 in Iran, the most influential Afghan poet in Iran in 2002, and the poet of the year in Afghanistan in 2004. He has also published articles and commentary in English in The Guardian.
Reza’s work is distinctive for his thorough knowledge of classical Afghan and Persian writing. His ability to write the beautiful language of poetry is matched by a deep and compassionate knowledge of the Persian region and culture. And though well-versed in politics, art, philosophy, history, he is also a poet wise about domestic, inner tensions, about love, about friendship. He is not a poet whose work is rarefied or separate in its concerns: his poetry reminds people of profound and shared values rather than dividing differences, and it is for this reason that his work has earned him respect amongst all ethnic groups of Afghanistan, Iran and Tajikistan. He is seen as a uniting writer.
Hamid Kabir