The writers and translators of the POL list

Fin Hall, the New Pitsligo-based poet and artistic organiser extraordinaire. Fin is the host of Like a Blot From the Blue, a poetry and spoken-word event transcending the boundaries of the physical and digital, welcoming hundreds of creatives from across the globe, as well as a regular open mic night at The Blue Lamp.

Fin is a profoundly experienced poet with a career spanning decades. On stage, Fin performs with a beautiful sensitivity. He isn't afraid to broach themes of old age, hope, love and loss, but reserves a potent and fiery attitude against injustice. Fin is also a filmmaker, collaborative writer and performance poet. This year, as well as adding a second regular venue for his Blot shows, he will be producing the New Pitsligo Spoken Word Festival.

He has two solo collections, Once Upon a Time There Was, Now There Isn't and Solidarity, a short collection of political rant poems, and two collaborative collections, Joined Up Writing 1 and 2, involving over 200 writers from around the globe. Book 3 is almost done. He has well over 20 pieces published online and in books from Australia, China, India, the USA, Canada and the UK. He is also preparing to publish a book by 70 different writers aged over 70. Next year, he will have another collection published, this time with his daughter taking part.

Sarah James is a prize-winning poet, fiction writer, journalist and photographer, also published as Sarah Leavesley. Her poetry has featured in The Guardian, Financial Times and Forward Prize anthologies, as well as in a café mural, on the BBC, on buses, city pavements and in the Blackpool Illuminations.

She is the author of eight poetry titles, an Arts Council England-funded multimedia hypertext poetry narrative, > Room, two novellas and a touring poetry play. Her latest poetry collection is Blood Sugar, Sex, Magic (Verve Poetry Press, 2022), winner of the CP Aware Award Prize for Poetry 2021.

She also runs V. Press, publishing award-winning poetry and flash fiction.

Laura Whelton is a 45-year-old woman living in Cork city. She studied Fine Art and trained to be a chef in Fine Dining. She also studied Sociology, English and History of Art. She has completed some Level 5 FETAC courses. She enjoys concerts, wine, music and literature. Laura has been published widely in books, zines and blogs.

Louise Whyburd has contributed to several issues of the POL magazine.

David Lee Morgan contributed to POL Poetry Out Loud: Prose Poetry, Issue 3 (2021).

Julfia Islam is a prolific Bangladeshi writer whose work spans essays, fiction, novels, and literature for women and young readers. Across 67 books, she explores psychology, sociology, history, philosophy, and the complexities of everyday life, with a sustained concern for a healthy, humane society.

An enlisted lyricist and artist with Bangladesh Television, she released her first music album, Megh Chhuyechhe Swapno (Dreams Touching the Clouds). She is a Life Member of the Bangla Academy and a regular contributor to leading newspapers and literary journals.

Her literary achievements have earned her numerous awards, including the Maulana Bhashani Literary Award, Salehin Memorial Award, Kabi Abu Jafar Obaidullah Memorial Award, MAPSAS Award (Human Rights, Environment and Journalism Society of Bangladesh), Hossain Shaheed Suhrawardy Gold Medal, Nawab Faizunnesa Gold Medal, Atish Dipankar Gold Medal (2008), Padakkhep Award (2014), and the Chokh Magazine Award, Kolkata. Her novel Padmapatay Jol (Water on a Lotus Leaf) was adapted into a 13-episode television serial broadcast by Bangladesh Television in 2011.

She is the founder of Julfia Islam Social Welfare Organisation (JISKS), and proprietor of Jui Prakashan, a publishing house.

Mojaffor Hossain is a fiction writer of contemporary Bangla literature. Starting his career as a journalist and now working as a translator at the Bangla Academy, Dhaka, he has published six books of short stories which, in recent years, have attracted acclaim from both general readers and literary critics. His signature style is using native realities as his settings and giving them magic-realistic or surrealistic colours.

He has received the Exim Bank-Anyadin Humayun Ahmed Award for his short story collection Atit Akta Bhindesh, the Abul Hasan Sahitya Award for Paradheen Desher Swadheen Manushera and the Kali O Kalam Sahitya Award for Timiryatra, a novel. He has also been awarded the Arani Sahitya Puraskar and the Boishakhi Television Award for his stories.

He is also known as a translator and literary critic and has published 15 books so far. His other notable works are South Asian Diaspora Literature, Pathe Bisleshane Bishwagalpo and Bishwasahityer Katha.

Gazi Fazla Rabbi is a writer, editor and translator whose work appears across the POL list — as author of the Bengali poetry collections A Girl from a Middle-Class Family and Of Wings and Warmth, and as editor and translator of Birth, Death, and the Palanquin by Urmila Rose.

Sampriti Bhattacharyya translated Of Wings and Warmth, carrying Gazi Fazla Rabbi’s Bengali poetry into English.

A Bangladeshi-born British poet whose work is presented in English translation in Birth, Death, and the Palanquin, edited and translated by Gazi Fazla Rabbi.

Saleha Chowdhury is the author of several English-language novels and a collected volume of short stories published by POL, including The Story of Jushnara and Whispers of Grass and Leaves.

Mahfuza Rahman’s selected poems, translated into English by Sucheta Garai, bring personal feeling into conversation with national history and social experience.

Sucheta Garai translated Mahfuza Rahman’s selected poems for Journey of a Melancholic Soul.

Swapan Nath translated Saleha Chowdhury’s children’s novel Moutushi into English.

Gauranga Mohanta edited Fresh Strands of the World, an anthology of contemporary prose poetry, and has contributed to POL magazine issues.

Binay Laha co-edited The Space: A Poetry Anthology with Uday Shankar Durjay.

Mohammad Hossain is the author of the novel The Life on a Seesaw.

Mazed Biswas is the author of The Unseen Chess Player, a poetic cycle exploring chess and power.

Kush Sen is the original author of শ্রীঅরবিন্দ আশ্রমের অন্তর্জগৎ (The Inner World of Sri Aurobindo Ashram — Bengali Edition), a first-hand account of spiritual life inside the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, published by POL in Bengali translation.

Lakshmi Narayan Mukhopadhyay is the author of Sabuj Balok (সবুজ বালক), a Bengali poetry collection written in the voice of the literary persona Aarghya Mukhopadhyay.

ছাহেরা রহমান is the author of বাংলা সহজ পাঠ, a Bengali reader published by POL International.

Chen Hsiu-chen is the executive editor of Li poetry magazine. She has published books including Non-diary (2009), String Echo in Forest (2010), Mask (2016), Uncertain Landscape (2017), Promise (2017), Poetry Feeling in Tamsui (2018), Fracture (2018), My Beloved Neruda (2020), Virus Takes No Rest (2021) and Encountering with Cesar Vallejo (2021).

Some of her poems have been translated into more than 20 languages. She participated in various national and international poetry festivals in Bangladesh, Macedonia, Peru, Tunisia, Chile, Vietnam, Romania and Mexico from 2015 to 2021. She won the Morning Star Prize from Peru in 2018 and the Naji Naaman Literary Prizes from Lebanon in 2020.

Sherzod Artikov was born in 1985 in the city of Marghilan, Uzbekistan. He graduated from Fergana Polytechnic Institute in 2005. He was one of the winners of the national literary contest My Pearl Region in the prose category in 2019.

In 2020, his first book, The Autumn's Symphony, was published in Uzbekistan by Yangi Asr Avlodi. In 2021, his works were published in the English-language anthologies World Writers in Bangladesh, Asia Sings and Mediterranean Waves in Egypt, Emerging Horizons in India, and Healing Through Verses in Canada. His book The Autumn's Symphony was also published in Spanish and English in Cuba by Argos Iberoamericana Publishing House.

Farhod Eshanov was born in 1994 in Margilan, in the Fergana region of Uzbekistan. He participated in the prose section of the 2019 Zaamin seminar. His stories have been published in national newspapers and in Russia.

Mirela Leka Xhava, born in the city of Elbasan, Albania, is a poet and writer. She graduated in Albanian Language and Literature and worked as a librarian at the university in the city. She also served as a correspondent for the newspaper Elbasani.

In 1999, her first book, I Do Not Love Winter in the Eye, was published. Mirela has since published her poetry in various national and international literary magazines. She has actively participated in contests and anthologies, receiving positive evaluations. Additionally, she engages in translation work from French for several literary magazines in Albania.

Her latest book of poems, Flowers of the Montesquieu Street, was published in September of this year. Mirela currently resides in Bordeaux, France, with her family, where she continues to write and pursue her literary endeavours.

Borche Panov was born on September 27, 1961, in Radovish, the Republic of North Macedonia. He graduated from Sts. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje in Macedonian and South Slavic Languages in 1986. He has been a member of the Macedonian Writers' Association since 1998.

His poetry publications include What Did Charlie Ch. See from the Back Side of the Screen (1991), Cyclone Eye (1995), Stop, Charlie (2002), Tact (2006), The Riddle of Glass (2008), Basilica of Writing (2010), Mystical Supper (2012), Vdah (The Breathe of Life) (2014), Human Silences (2016), Uhania (2017), Shell (2018) and A Room of My Time Zones (2021). His essays and plays include The Fifth Season of the Year (2000).

He has also published poetry books in other languages: Particles of Hematite (2016, in Macedonian and Bulgarian, published in Bulgaria); Vdah (2017, in Slovenian, published in Slovenia); Balloon Shaving (2018, in Serbian, published in Serbia); Fotostiheza (Photopoesis, 2019, in Bulgarian, published in Bulgaria); Blood That Juggles with 80000 Thoughts (2021, in Croatian, published in Croatia); Underground Apple in Arabic, published in the United Arab Emirates in 2021 by Rawashen Publishing House; and Underground Apple in English, translated by Daniela Andonovska-Trajkovska and published in the Netherlands by Demer Press in 2021.

His poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies, literary magazines and journals at home and abroad, and his works have been translated into 38 languages.

He has won several literary awards, including the Premio Mondiale Tulliola-Renato Filippelli in Italy for Balloon Shaving (2021), the International Award of Excellence City of Galateo-Antonio De Ferrariis in Rome, Italy (2021), Premio Le Occasioni in Italy, among 662 participants, and the Sahitto Literary Award 2021.

Mariia Starosta lives in Lviv, Ukraine. She is the author of two poetry books, Two Worlds and A Woman with the Smell of Smoke, and plans to publish a third, bilingual collection, Reflections of a Woman.

She teaches Ukrainian language and literature at the Lviv Linguistic Gymnasium. She is married and is raising a son and a daughter.

Daniela Andonovska Trajkovska, born on February 3, 1979, in Bitola, North Macedonia, is a poet, scientist, literary critic, doctor of pedagogy and university professor.

She is editor in chief of two literary journals: Rast (Growth), published by Bitola Literary Circle, and Contemporary Dialogues, published by the Macedonian Science Society. She is also an editor of Stozher, the literary magazine issued by the Macedonian Writers’ Association.

She is co-founder of the Center for Literature, Art, Culture, Rhetoric and Language at the Faculty of Education in Bitola. She is a member of the Macedonian Writers’ Association, the Macedonian Science Society in Bitola, the Slavic Academy for Literature and Art in Varna, and Bitola Literary Circle. She served two terms as president of the Editorial Council of the Macedonian Science Society and is now Head of its Department for Linguistic and Literature.

She has published three university books, two books of short stories, one poetry book for children, nine poetry books in Macedonian and five poetry books in English, Italian and Arabic. Her poetry has been translated into 40 languages.

Her literary awards include Krste Chachanski for prose (2019), the National Karamanov Poetry Prize for Electronic Blood (2019), Macedonian Literary Avant-garde for House of Contrasts (2020), Abduvali Qutbiddin (Uzbekistan, 2020), Tulliola-Renato Filippelli for Electronic Blood (Italy, 2021), City of Galateo-Antonio De Ferraris (Italy, 2021), the Literary Criticism Award (2022), the Dritero Agolli Award (Albania, 2023), and the Aco Shopov Award for Math Poetry, awarded by the Macedonian Writers’ Association in 2021.

Nivedita Lakhera was born and raised in New Delhi, India. She grew up in a loving and supportive family and currently lives in California.

Nivedita Lakhera, M.D., is a board-certified Internal Medicine doctor with more than a decade of experience in inpatient medicine. She is considered one of the leading feminist contemporary poets and is a staunch advocate of gender equality in all spheres of life, especially medicine and technology.

She is a prolific writer, having written 4,000 poems and prose pieces, besides creating a substantial body of artwork while remaining dedicated to her professional practice of medicine.

Lakhera has published two poetry and art books: Pillow of Dreams and I Am Not a Princess, I Am a Complete Fairytale.

Hrishikesh Goswami, an India Book of Records holder for poetry and recognised in The Assam Tribune's Creative Endeavour of the Month in April 2021, is a contemporary naturalistic poet from Assam, India. He specialises in writing about nature and realism, combining fiction and non-fiction.

His poems have been critically analysed by Fruit Journal Manchester (UK), Acorn: A Journal of Contemporary Haiku, The Leading Edge Magazine and BreakBread Magazine.

His work has been published by The Assam Tribune's Horizon and Planet Young, NEZINE, Noverse Foundation, FoxGales Publishers, Poem Hunter: The World's Poetry Archive, Guwahati Grand Poetry Festival, Cultural Reverence and many more.

Antje Stehn, Germany, is a poet, visual artist and art curator associated with German PEN Zentrum.

She is co-editor of the poetry magazines TamTamBumBum, Los Ablucionistas and Archer, and a member of the directive committee of Piccolo Museo della Poesia, Italy.

She is curating the art and poetry project Rucksack: A Global Poetry Patchwork, which involves more than 250 international poets.

Hussein Habasch is a poet from Afrin, Kurdistan. He currently lives in Bonn, Germany. His poems have been translated into English, German, Spanish and other languages.

His books include Drowning in Roses; Fugitives Across Evros River; Higher Than Desire and More Delicious Than the Gazelle's Flank; Delusions to Salim Barakat; A Flying Angel; No Pasarán, in Spanish; Copaci Cu Chef, in Romanian; Dos Árboles and Tiempos de Guerra, in Spanish; Fever of Quince, in Kurdish; Peace for Afrin, Peace for Kurdistan, in English and Spanish; The Red Snow, in Chinese; Dead Arguing in the Corridors, in Arabic; Drunken Trees, in Kurdish; Boredom of a Tired Statue, in Kurdish; Flor del Espinillo, in Spanish; and A Rose for the Heart of Life: Selected Poems, in English.

He is a recipient of the Great Kurdish Poet Hamid Bedirkhan Award, awarded by the General Union of Kurdish Writers and Journalists, and the International Bosnian Stećak Award for Poetry, awarded by the Bosnia and Herzegovina Writers Union.

Joanna Svensson is an award-winning Swedish poet, writer and novelist. She has published three fiction novels and eight books of poetry and has participated in numerous anthologies across the globe.

Her latest poetry book was published in Arabic in 2021. Her poems also appeared in a new American poetry collection published earlier this year. Fifteen of her short stories are due to be published soon.

She is a member of the Swedish Authors' Society and The Polish Writers Abroad.