Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry 2014

Imtiaz Dharker’s cultural experience spans three countries. Born in Pakistan, she grew up in Glasgow, and now divides her time between Bombay and London. It is from this life of transitions that she draws her themes: childhood, exile, journeying, home and religious strife.

In I Speak for the Devil, the woman’s body is a territory, a thing that is possessed, owned by herself or by another. Her sequence, They’ll say, ‘She must be from another country’ traces a journey, starting with a striptease where the claims of nationality, religion and gender are cast off, to allow an exploration of new territories, the spaces between countries, cultures and religions.

The title-sequence speaks for the devil in acknowledging that in many societies women are respected, or listened to, only when they are carrying someone else inside their bodies – a child; a devil. For some, to be “possessed” is to be set free.