Moniza Alvi

Fairoz is a book-length poetry sequence in which Moniza Alvi explores an imagined teenage girl’s susceptibility to extremism. The book’s fragmented, collaging narrative draws together fairytale elements, glimpses of Fairoz’s thoughts, and pieces of dialogue. A folkloric representation of God and the devil acts as a wry counterpoint, touching on questions of morality. Fairoz is a powerful portrayal of human vulnerability.

‘… a sequence of poems that tell a story…of a young Muslim girl, Fairoz, and her encounters, mainly online, with a Muslim extremist, Tahir. Alvi uses a repeated metaphor of characters appearing in a wood for these interactions, to great effect.’ – Simon Williams, Expert Reviews (Best poetry books you can buy in 2022)

‘Book-length poetry sequence in which Alvi explores an imagined teenage girl’s susceptibility to extremism and draws together fairytale elements, glimpses of the girl Fairoz’s thoughts and pieces of dialogue to make a “powerful portrayal of human vulnerability.”.’ – Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller, Forthcoming New titles: Non-fiction, March 2022, on Moniza Alvi’s Fairoz

‘Fairoz is a brilliant example of narrative poetry, and poetry with an important story to tell. Alvi handles the difficult subject matter with great formal elegance. This is not a Disney fairytale; it is dark and unflinching but also full of hope.’ – Ellora Sutton, Mslexia

'The poems unfold like scenes in a play, and Alvi seems to borrow the idea of a Greek chorus to create the cultural background through lines spoken by unnamed people... Fairoz is a fictional character, yet the questions raised are a reminder of how easily the vulnerable are preyed upon...a testimony to how powerfully poetry can allow the marginalised to have voices.' - Mary Mulholland, The Alchemy Spoon

‘The dramatisation of the human story is brilliant, and the fact it makes such harsh and disturbing reading is a mark of Moniza Alvi’s genius in bringing such a harrowing story to life. The poems, stark and carefully crafted, show how global politics filter down into the minutiae of all our lives, in extreme form here in a tale about religious extremism, but present everywhere… All in all, I found Fairoz a disturbingly unforgettable collection, so powerfully done as the girl moves from one story of estrangement into another.’ – Rosie Jackson, The High Window

‘In its depiction of Fairoz’s inner voice and life the book reveals the conflict between haven and exile, heaven and purgatory. It’s a study in displacement, the process of exclusion and the desire to belong, to be beloved and accepted... This extended long poem form permits multiple perspectives, resisting answers to the questions posed by its protagonists and instead offering its readers twisting ‘dark pathways’ and more questions.’ - Lucy Sheerman, Long Poem Magazine

‘Moniza Alvi’s new collection Fairoz is a book length piece which focuses entirely on one young woman’s encounters with those attempting to radicalise her through online contact… This brave, powerful and important book completely gripped me and I read it in twenty four hours… A tour-de-force.’ – Sue Dymoke, Sue Dymoke Poetry

'In Moniza Alvi’s tenth collection Fairoz, an intricate narrative poem, a British Pakistani family of three Muslim women, a self-empowered mother and her two daughters Fairoz and Annat are abandoned by her husband. Alvi cleverly welds the imagery of folk tales, legends and lore, to enhance her narrative: she also employs to great advantage the insidious power of the internet to play with the imagination. The quest of the unhappy teenage Fairoz for understanding, meaning and self leads to her online contact with a young man, the 25-year-old Tahir, a radicalised religious extremist.' - Muneeza Shamsie, Journal of Commonwealth Literature

‘She is a skilled storyteller, recounting the extraordinary in the voice of the everyday, so that we accept the miraculous as something we need… the overriding impression is of a deft, restrained language carrying ideas with a metaphysical wit and seriousness .’ – Leonie Rushforth, London Magazine

‘One of the few British poets whose work could currently be described as essential reading, not least as we try to grasp what fractures of cultural difference might have contributed to the July 7 bombings.’ – Tim Robertson, Magma

'Europa made the most difference to me as a writer. It showed me one way of writing about trauma and violence, how to circle around a central concern and explore it from different angles […] when I came to write my own poetry about violence I returned to this collection many times to study how it had been done before.' – Kim Moore, The North

‘Blackbird, Bye Bye is a tender exploration of the world and human nature, which recognises “the carnage, the onslaught / of the centuries” while managing to find solace in the redemptive powers of art, language and the natural world.’ – Sarala Estruch, The Telegraph

Moniza Alvi reads from Fairoz at the Bloodaxe online launch

Moniza Alvi read poems from Fairoz at this Bloodaxe online launch event shared with Amali Gunasekera and Jessica Traynor whose three collections were all published in March 2022. At the end of the readings Bloodaxe editor Neil Astley hosted a fascinating discussion between the three poets about their new books.

Moniza Alvi reads six poems

Moniza Alvi reads six poems selected from her Bloodaxe retrospective Split World: Poems 1990-2005 (2008) and her later collection Europa (2008) whose cover picture is a painting by American artist Tabitha Vevers, ‘When We Talk About Rape’ (1992), the inspiration for the poem ‘Mermaid’, which she reads last in this film. The title-sequence of her 2005 collection How the Stone Found Its Voice is a series of poems inspired by creation myths. Begun in the wake of the tragedy of 9/11, they are imbued with the dark spirit of that time, with titles including ‘How a Long Way Off Rolled Itself Up’ and ‘How the World Split in Two’, the poem she reads first in the film. The poems she reads are: ‘How the World Split in Two’, ‘I Would Like to be a Dot in a Painting by Miró’, ‘I Was Raised in a Glove Compartment’, ‘The Sari’, ‘Presents from My Aunts in Pakistan’ and ‘Mermaid’. Neil Astley filmed her reading and discussing a selection of her poems at her home in Wymondham, Norfolk, in November 2013. This film is one of 60 videos included in the DVD-anthology In Person: World Poets, filmed and edited by Pamela Robertson-Pearce and Neil Astley (Bloodaxe Books, 2017).

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