Agha Shahid Ali (1949–2001)

Author of The Country without a Post Office

17+ Works 562 Members 4 Reviews 4 Favorited

About the Author

Agha Shahid Ali was a finalist for the National Book Award for Rooms Are Never Finished. He taught at the University of Utah, the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He received Guggenheim and Ingram-Merrill fellowships, among others. He show more was born in New Delhi and grew up in Kashmir. He died in December 2001 show less

Includes the names: Agha Ali, Shahid Ali Agha, Agha Shahit Ali, Agha Shahid Ali

Image credit: Agha Shahid Ali

Works by Agha Shahid Ali

Popular Recent

The Country without a Post Office (1997) 155 copies, 1 review

Rooms Are Never Finished: Poems (2001) 93 copies

The Veiled Suite: The Collected Poems (2009) 80 copies, 1 review

Call Me Ishmael Tonight: A Book of Ghazals (2003) 58 copies, 1 review

Ravishing DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English (2000) 54 copies

A Nostalgist's Map of America: Poems (1991) 52 copies, 1 review

The Half-Inch Himalayas (1987) 50 copies

A Walk Through the Yellow Pages (1987) 6 copies

The beloved witness: Selected poems (1992) 5 copies

T.S. Eliot as Editor (1986) 2 copies

Poems (in Paris Review 158 - PLIMPTON) 1 copy

Final Collections (Call Me Ishmael Tonight and Rooms Are Never Finished) (2004) 1 copy

Houses {poem} 1 copy

Half-Inch Himalayas 1 copy

Bone Sculpture 1 copy

In memory of Begum Akhtar 1 copy

Lenox Hill 1 copy

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Associated Works

American Religious Poems: An Anthology (2006) — Contributor — 183 copies, 2 reviews

From Totems to Hip-Hop: A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry Across the Americas 1900-2002 (2002) — Contributor — 182 copies

The Best American Poetry 1997 (1997) — Contributor — 176 copies

The Best American Poetry 1998 (1998) — Contributor — 168 copies

Poetry Speaks Expanded: Hear Poets Read Their Own Work from Tennyson to Plath (2007) — Contributor — 157 copies, 2 reviews

The Book of Love (1998) — Contributor — 151 copies

The Best American Poetry 1992 (1992) — Contributor — 107 copies

The Poem Is You: 60 Contemporary American Poems and How to Read Them (2016) — Contributor — 77 copies

The Poets' Grimm: 20th Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales (2003) — Contributor — 70 copies, 1 review

Poetry of Witness: The Tradition in English, 1500-2001 (2014) — Contributor — 52 copies, 1 review

Premonitions: The Kaya Anthology of New Asian North American Poetry (1995) — Contributor — 27 copies

Masters of British Literature, Volume B (2007) — Contributor — 22 copies

Bold Words: A Century of Asian American Writing (2001) — Contributor — 21 copies

Yaraana: Gay Writing from South Asia (1999) — Contributor — 20 copies

The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets (2008) — Contributor — 18 copies

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Common Knowledge

Birthdate: 1949-02-04
Date of death: 2001-12-08
Gender: male
Education: University of Kashmir
Hindu College, University of Delhi
Pennsylvania State University
University of Arizona
Occupations: poet
Nationality: India
Birthplace: New Delhi, India
Places of residence: New Delhi, India
USA
Place of death: Amherst, Massachusetts, USA
Burial location: Northampton, Massachusetts, USA
Associated Place (for map): Massachusetts, USA

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4 reviews

greeniezona 1,351 reviews

The Country without a Post Office: Poems (Agha Shahid Ali) by Agha Shahid Ali

While at the Art Institute in Chicago, Jessa & I saw Nilima Sheikh's exhibit, "Each Night Put Kashmir in Your Dreams." There was a lot of text interwoven in the art, and Jessa and I had some divergent opinions about the appropriateness of such intermingling. I came down in favor of the text. The exhibit itself was inspired by poetry, particularly the poem, "I see Kashmir from Ne Delhi at Midnight" by Ali. I was intrigued by the exhibition, so when I saw a collection of Ali's poems in the show more museum store I snatched it up.

These poems are a roller coaster (that mostly goes down). They will make you miss your home even if you've fled it. They will make you despair the idea of your home being destroyed by war. They will make you yearn temporarily for something so "romantic" as being a war exile and then immediately feel like an utter ass for ever entertaining such a thought.

What I knew about Kashmir before this was almost nothing, and now I want to know more, especially some of the religion and mythology alluded to. I'd no idea Kashmir could have ever been thought Persian (I thought Persia = Old Iran). Why did I never take world history? I should read more Lal Ded.

I love best the poem "Farewell":
"They make a desolation and call it peace."
"We can't ask them: Are you done with the world?"
"My memory keeps getting in the way of your history."

But they are all wonderful. They all tighten something in my chest and twist my mouth. Beautiful. Heartbreaking. show less

Dec 6, 2017

trusmis 353 reviews

Call Me Ishmael by Agha Shahid Ali

No conocia este formato de poesia/cancion llamado Ghazal.
El formato en si me ha encantado, me gustaria leer mas.

Los contenidos de este libro sin embargo no me han llamado tanto. Las conexiones entre conceptos me han parecido en muchos casos imposibles. Quiza es mi limitada inteligencia o imaginacion, simplemente no he sido capaz de conseguir que me transmitieran algo en muchos casos.

Nov 28, 2020

jasdeep 4 reviews

The Veiled Suite: The Collected Poems by Agha Shahid Ali