Introducing our Summer Special Commendation Imtiaz Dharker grew up a 'Muslim Calvinist' in a Lahori household in Glasgow, was adopted by India and married into Wales. She has published seven poetry books with Bloodaxe, including Leaving Fingerprints (2009), Over the Moon (2014) and Luck Is the Hook (2018).
She is also an accomplished artist, and all her collections are illustrated with her drawings. She was awarded The Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry for 2014, a Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Her poems are on the British GCSE and A Level English syllabus, and she reads with other poets at Poetry Live! events to more than 35,000 students a year. In 2020 she was appointed Chancellor of Newcastle University.