Our panel of poets
Photo: Derrick Kakembo
Pascale Petit
Pascale was born in Paris, grew up in France and Wales and lives in Cornwall. She is of French, Welsh and Indian heritage. Her eighth collection, Tiger Girl, from Bloodaxe in 2020, was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection, and for Wales Book of the Year. A poem from the book won the Keats-Shelley Poetry Prize. Her seventh poetry collection Mama Amazonica, published by Bloodaxe in 2017, won the inaugural Laurel Prize in 2020, won the RSL Ondaatje Prize in 2018, was shortlisted for the Roehampton Poetry Prize, and was a Poetry Book Society Choice.
Elizabeth Cook
Elizabeth Cook is a poet, fiction writer, and librettist, interested in the ways in which the past is continually being re-fashioned and re-known. She lives in East London, and practises as a Christian, drawn to Franciscanism. Achilles (Methuen 2001) moves from the Homeric Bronze Age to Keats in the nineteenth century while Lux (Scribe, 2019) takes a story from the Hebrew Scriptures through to the English Tudors. She has collaborated with composers and was librettist for Francis Grier’s oratorio, The Passion of Jesus of Nazareth (Radio 3, 2006).
Aminah Rahman
Aminah is an award-winning poet and spoken word artist, born and raised in Cambridge. She has loved writing and performing on stage from a young age. Aminah has performed at many events.
Aminah performed at the BBC Make a Difference awards ceremony in 2023. She also performed at the England and Wales Cricket Board's (ECB) first-ever Iftar at Lord's Cricket Ground in 2022. Aminah was commissioned by BBC Asian Network to write and perform a poem celebrating 50 years of Bangladesh independence. She has also worked with the official International Women's Day team. Aminah represented Cambridgeshire at the BBC Upload Festival 2020, a festival showcasing talent from across England and the Channel Islands. Aminah won the Young Muslim Writers Awards Key Stage 2 Poetry category in 2015. In 2017, Aminah was the joint-winner of the Cambridge News and Media Education Awards: Pupil of the Year.
Shasta Hanif Ali
Shasta is a writer and poet. Her writing delicately navigates the legacy of empire, race and heritage, Shasta was nominated and honoured in a mural as one of Edinburgh’s 100 trailblazing women in 2022.
Shasta’s writing has been published in the Scottish BPOC Writers Network, STV Scotland and Our Time Is A Garden Anthology (IASH), among others. Shasta has performed her poetry at Push The Boat Out Edinburgh, Fringe of Colour Scotland; as well as writing and performing her poetry for a collaborative play at the Edinburgh Lyceum.
Taresh Nadar
Taresh was born in India in 1954, and came to Glasgow in 1959. He is a Hindu poet with a passion for interfaith dialogue and more love, hope and compassion in society. He is a retired teacher of Design and Technology and the Founder and Chairperson of Common Thread Vision.