Sascha A. Akhtar’s ‘Poems for Eliot’ was first published in Poetry Wales Volume 54 Number 2 and features in Poetry Wales’ top 10 list of the 5 five years. The full poem can be read in Akhtar’s upcoming collection #LoveLikeBlood (Knives Forks and Spoons Press). Akhtar writes fiction and poetry and is a healer specialising in Meditative practice & Sound Healing.
Sascha Aurora Akhtar’s poetry has been widely anthologised, translated and performed internationally at festivals such as the Poetry International Festival Rotterdam, Avantgarde Festival Hamburg and Southbank Centre’s MELTDOWN festival London curated by Yoko Ono.
Sascha has been part of poetry protests – Against Rape (Peony Moon, 2014) and Solidarity Park Poetry – Poems for the Turkish resistance (Ed. 2013). Her poetry collections are The Grimoire of Grimalkin ( Salt 2007), 199 Japanese Names for Japanese Trees (Shearsman, 2016) and poems as a Tarot pack, entitled Only Dying Sparkles (ZimZalla, 2018) with original art by John Alexander Arnold.
Sascha has a few things coming besides in 2019 such as a chapbook The Whimsy of Dank Ju-Ju (Emma Press) available for pre-order, a poeto-documentation of claircognizance with astrological charts & foreward by the Glitter Oracle ( Poet & astrologer Francesca Lisette) Astra Inclinant (Contraband Press) and another full-length collection #LoveLikeBlood(Knives Spoons and Forks Press). Poems from #LoveLikeBlood will be part of the Blackpool illuminations in 2019.
She has a book of translations of pioneering feminist fiction writer Hijjab Imtiaz coming out in April 2020 on Oxford University Press. Her Art/object deck of poems with drawings on ZimZalla (Manchester) entitled Only Dying Sparkles was featured on the Southbank Poetry Library acquisitions & at the University of Leeds PoetryBy Design Exhibit, which was on till August 23rd, 2019.
She is a Poetry School tutor specialising in healing & the history of magic in text & poetry. In the Autumn term 2019 will be teaching for six weeks at the University of Greenwich, London. In October 2018, she received funding from the Arts Council England in the form of the #DYCP grant. Her fiction has appeared in Storgy, The Learned Pig, Tears In The Fence, BlazeVox and Anti-Heroin Chic. Some magical workshops are planned with Parmenar Press. F: @ChoisirLeMotJuste Tw: @AkhtarSascha Insta: @sashickusmagickus
If you have not felt the power of her performance, you can:
Sep 19th, Xing The Line, London. IKLEKTIK.
Sep 23rd, Emma Press Launch with Ramona Richard, London. POETRY CAFE.
Also sometime in September/October T.B.A Contraband Press Launch, London.
Oct 9th, University of Sheffield.
Oct 23rd, No Matter, Castle Hotel, Manchester.
Nov 13th 87 Press, Roebuck Pub, South London.
