The City of The Beloved

A 2017 winner of the Kundiman poetry prize, Adeeba Shahid Talukder builds on the universe of Urdu and Persian poetic traditions. This beautiful base of metaphors, romances, and legends, transform into lenses for her own fluctuating circumstances. Telling a tale of many challenges, Talukder writes “They told me/I was no prophetess./But I was,/for I was wrathful.”, affirming her individuality above all else.