Leading poet enlightens Perse English students in special visit

Acclaimed poet Imtiaz Dharker inspired Perse A level English literature students during a special visit to the Upper.

Writer of numerous evocative anthologies over the last three decades, Imtiaz won the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2014, while several of her poems have become mainstays of the GCSE English syllabus.

Her latest collection Shadow Reader is being studied by Perse Lower Sixth English students as part of their A level course.

During her visit, Imtiaz read poems from the volume before taking part in a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with the students.

Perse Director of English & Drama Chris Green was thrilled when Imtiaz accepted an invitation to talk to the group, which was her first-ever workshop with A level students.

He said: “We had been looking to replace one of our coursework texts for the Sixth Form. After a great deal of research, we were in no doubt that Imtiaz Dharker’s new collection Shadow Reader was the perfect option, introducing our students to outstanding and diverse material which has only been written in the last couple of years.

“She delivered a wonderful reading and then took questions on a wide variety of topics, from the details of linguistic aspects of individual poems to broader questions about the challenges of assessing responses to poetry in examination conditions.”