Art of Scratching

Shazea Quraishi was born in Pakistan, emigrated to Canada aged ten, and lived in Madrid before moving to London where she works as a writer, teacher and translator. A selection of her work was included in Bernardine Evaristo's Bloodaxe anthology Ten: new poets from Spread the Word in 2010. Her first pamphlet, The Courtesans Reply, was published by flipped eye in 2012. The Art of Scratching (Bloodaxe Books, 2015) is her first book-length collection.

'There is an intriguing collision between the archaeological and the lyrical in Shazea Quraishi's series of poems, The Courtesans Reply - The props and rituals bestow on these poems an exotic otherness but the emotions they explore are timeless' - Stephen Knight, Ten. 'Shazea Quraishi is one of a number of younger black and Asian women poets currently gaining ground in UK poetry. In sensual, clear, perfectly measured tones, her poems meet the male gaze with a female voice' - Katie Evans-Bush, Poetry International Web. 'Shazea Quraishi, in The Courtesans Reply, sensitively reconstructs an unfamiliar and vanished culture. Working from historical and literary sources, Quraishi never allows her research to speak louder than the human voices of her characters, a community of courtesans in Ancient India. Their individual feelings and desires emerge through lines which are simultaneously spare and sensuous' - Richard O'Brien, Poetry London.