AHVAZ // AAVAZ // AVAAZ

A Chapbook Anthology of South Asian Poetry

Edited by Shazia Hafiz Ramji

May 2022

Contributors:

Manahil Bandukwala, Gavin Barrett, Farah Ghafoor, Meharoona Ghani, Maryam Gowralli, Laboni Islam, Saakshi Patel, Ayaz Pirani, Fauzia Rafique, Renee Sarojini Saklikar, Amritpal Singh Arora, Sanna Wani

From the introduction

It is with immense Brown joy that I’ve had the privilege of bringing together a range of South Asian voices in celebration of Asian Heritage Month for the League of Canadian Poets.

The poets in Ahvaz / Aavaz / Avaaz dwell in the liminality of what it means to be “South Asian” on Turtle Island and elsewhere. From thinking about lineage at Safeway to sounding Bangla, the poets in this collection offer us haraami poems, garam garam poems, and ocean poems to speak to and with the vibrant polyphony of our diaspora and communities.

Shazia Hafiz Ramji’s fiction was shortlisted for the Malahat Review’s 2022 Open Season Awards. Her poetry was shortlisted for the 2021 National Magazine Awards and the 2021 Mitchell Prize for Faith and Poetry. Shazia’s award-winning first book is Port of Being. She lives in Vancouver and Calgary, where she is at work on a novel.