Critical Reviews
Lahore I am Coming
Nafhesa Ali| August 23, 2019
Rizwan Akhtar is a Pakistani poet who presents his first collection of poems Lahore, / Am Coming with enthusiasm. The book immediately draws your eye to the cover and its representation of the eclectic mix of Lahore’s vibrancy of colures, Islamic architecture, and heritage against the book’s title, typeset in English. This fusion spills over into the tone of Akhtar’s collection, summarized by Fiona Sinclair, in the preface, as Akhtar’s desire to “write the world” (2017: p. xiii) through his poetry. Read More……..
Poems on Lahore and much more
Saeed Ur Rehman| Literati| March 4, 2018
Whenever one tries to think of Pakistani poetry in English, the moment becomes a Zen riddle. In Urdu and Punjabi we have giants: Ghalib, Iqbal, Faiz and Faraz in Urdu; and Shah Hussain, Bulleh Shah and Waris Shah in Punjabi. Even when publishers reject the manuscripts of new poets (writing in any language) and new poetry books are remaindered and, nobody can think of Ghalib, Iqbal and Faiz going out of print. In English, things are different. The region has produced Taufiq Rafat and Agha Shahid Ali. To some extent, Waqas Khwaja has also contributed to the globalisation of South Asian Anglophone poetry. But the arena of poetry is not as vibrant as that of the novel. English novelists from Pakistan have made their mark on the world of letters: Mohammed Hanif, Mohsin Hamid and Omar Shahid Hamid have “achieved some valid pages” (a phrase used by Borges to describe the worth of his own writing). Read More……..
Lahore I am Coming: An Echo from the Past-Karim Akhtar
Karim Akhtar| August 2, 2021
Poetry, perhaps one of the oldest genres of literature, transcends history and philosophy. As Sir Philip Sidney in his Defence of Poesy illustrates that it must be revered for its antiquity. The poet being an emotional custodian of the art and culture reinvents history through his language. Lahore, I am Coming is Rizwan Akhtar’s first collection of poems, and most of the poems reverberate the past civilization of the subcontinent, the Moghul art and architecture, culture and geography. It also echoes the ravages of colonialism on culture and traditions of the sub-continent. The inclusion of the images of various places of Lahore particularly Moghul art and architecture reflects his belongings and association with Lahore. Read More……..
Rizwan Akhtar’s Lahore I am Coming
Dr. Shahid Imtiaz| 2018
Lahore I Am Coming is the first collection of poems by Dr. Rizwan Akhtar who is an Assistant Professor of English at Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan. Some of the poems included in the collection have been published in the prestigious literary journals like Poetry Salzburg Review,
Poetry NZ, Transnational Literature and others. The Preface is written by Fiona Sinclair, editor of the on line poetry magazine Message in a Bottle, and the Introduction by Alistair Paterson, poet, editor, essayist, anthologist, critic and a novelist. In Paterson’s view Akhtar “has the skill and sensitivityfor such work as his current collection reveals.” Read More……..
POETRY: VERSIFYING LAHORE
Irfan Aslam| February 25, 2018
The American poet Robert Frost had so much New England — especially Boston — in his poems that he was dubbed the ‘Yankee farmer poet’. W.B. Yeats and Seamus Heaney were known for their Irishness. They found their inspiration in their land, hence making the land, or region, their muse. Regionalism in art and literature may have negative connotations sometimes but, in fact, it also alludes to the rootedness of the artists, writers or poets and their identity. They make their land or city the subject of their work because it moves them psychologically and emotionally, evoking responses in their art. Read More……..
ARTS, CULTURE & BOOKS ‘Lahore, I am Coming’ — embracing the city’s cultural offerings
Faiza Anum| FEBRUARY 12, 2018
‘Lahore, I am Coming’, Rizwan Akhtar’s first collection of poems is an odyssey into the rooted multiplicity and thriving vibrancy of Lahore – a city marked by its ‘tea-brown heat’ and ‘paradoxical doors’. To look at, the book jacket is formed with polychromatic pyramid like structures built brick by brick which triangulate the historicity of maroon bridal Lahore that endures ‘ashes’. Badshahi Mosque and the Lahore Fort, crowded by an assortment of animated trees in the background, bespeak of Lahore’s rich cultural heritage. ‘Aaalef’ and ‘Meem’ written in both Arabic and Roman transliteration suggest that the poet exists within the lingual annexation of Urdunised-Arabic, Urdunised-English, and Englishised-Urdu. Read More……..