The Urdu Ghazal Podcast Episode 14-- Parveen Shakir

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Parveen Shakir (1952-1994) attained fame early when her first poetry collection was published in 1976. The literary career that followed consisted of several acclaimed poetry collections and honors. She was highly educated, earning her degrees from Karachi and Harvard Universities. She was selected for the Pakistan Civil Service, and her untimely death in a car accident shocked everyone. With her death, the Urdu language lost one of its most promising young writers who had much more to contribute, especially on themes that concern women. Her poetry is a beautiful blending of classical as well as postmodern. Her sensibility had a great sense of beauty and a tinge of fragrance. The keywords of her ghazal are khushbuu, rusvaaii, harjaaii, shanaasaaii, and the like. There is more interest in her work now than when she was alive.

 For more about the Urdu Ghazal Poetry, please refer to:

Gopi Chand Narang, Translation by Surinder Deol. The Urdu Ghazal: A Gift of Composite Culture. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2020.