Part of the external The British Library oral history collection

About

Imtiaz Dharker was born in Lahore (Pakistan) and has lived across South Asia and the UK. She is an award-winning poet, artist and filmmaker, and was considered for the role of Poet Laureate in 2019. The main themes of her work include home, freedom, geographical displacement and journeys.

Imtiaz Dharker, recorded at the British Library in 2010 as part of the 'Between Two Worlds: Poetry and Translation' project, funded by the Arts Council. The recording is British Library collection reference number C1340/41, © Imtiaz Dharker.

Listen to Imtiaz talking about different aspects of her identity.

Interview conducted at the British Library in 2010.

ID: I call myself a Scottish, Pakistani, Calvinist, Muslim, adopted by India, now adopted by Wales. And the reason I even bother to give that definition is that it isn't a definition, because what I'd like to suggest is that I don't want to be put in any single box, really to say how...meaningless...really to say how meaningless the boxes and the definitions are. So I call myself a cultural mongrel, and I think I make myself up every day.

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Entry credit

Laura Owen

Citation: ‘Imtiaz Dharker’, South Asian Britain, https://southasianbritain-demo.rit.bris.ac.uk/oral-histories/imtiaz-dharker/. Accessed: 6 July 2025.

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