Selected Poems
Mimi Khalvati's "Selected Poems" draws on her three Carcanet collections, "In White Ink" (1991), "Mirrorwork" (1995) and "Entries on Light" (1997). It provides us with the essential Khalvati, from the ambitiously wrought early formal poems, full of Persian and personal shadows, through to the meditations in the long sequence Entries on Light. She brings into English poetry distinct formal and tonal elements of Persian and Islamic provenance. A mature eroticism marks her poems; also, a feeling for nature in all its varieties. She is partial to the long poem built out of distinct parts, the sequence or series, from "Plant Care" in her first book to "Entries on Light itself".
About the author
Born in Tehran in 1944, Mimi Khalvati grew up on the Isle of Wight and attended the Drama Centre, London. She then worked as a theatre director in Tehran, translating from English into Farsi and devising new plays, as well as co-founding the Theatre in Exile group. She now lives in Hackney and is a Visiting Lecturer at Goldsmiths College and a director of the London Poetry School. Carcanet publish her six previous collections, including "In White Ink" (1991), "Mirrorwork" (1995) and "The Chine" (2002).