Additional information
by Taz Rahman (Author)
Longlisted for the Laurel Prize for Ecopoetry, Taz Rahman's East of the Sun, West of the Moon is named after the 1935 jazz standard, and like any great jazz tune - many of which inspire these poems - this collection is full of improvisation and innovation with language, and it demands a quality of listening carefully to the world, of paying attention. Many of these poems are from the perspective of a flaneur, someone who wanders through the city - in this case Cardiff - registering impressions about the people and things observed. This includes a deep fascination for nature as encountered in city parks and on the banks of the River Taff as it winds its way through the metropolis.
Author Biography
Taz Rahman is a Cardiff based poet, writer, and literary content creator. He has been published in, Poetry Wales, Bad Lilies, South Bank Poetry, Anthropocene, Bad Lilies, Propel, Atrium, Abridged, The Lonely Crowd, Atrium, Planet - The Welsh Internationalist, Honest Ulsterman, Nation Cymru, Culture Matters, and various anthologies. He has been selected to be the Chairperson of Poetry Wales Magazine's, Readers' Committee from September 2022 and is editor of the climate emergency themed literary journal, Modron, alongside poets Zoë, Brigley, and, Kristian, Evans. He was one of the judges for the 2021 Poetry Wales Pamphlet Competition. In 2021 he was awarded a place in the Literature Wales writer development programme Representing Wales, mentored by Zoë Brigley, and he was selected for the 2023 Hay Festival Writers at Work scheme., He had been shortlisted for the 2022 Aesthetica Creative Writing Award. He founded the YouTube poetry channel 'Just Another Poet' in 2019, which is presently supported by the Books Council Wales and had previously received literary commissions from Literature Wales. His debut collection is forthcoming from Seren in February 2024.
