Subject strengths: Literature, Contemporary Literature, Poetry

Moniza Alvi was born in Lahore, Pakistan, but moved to England as a young child and was raised in Hertfordshire. She studies at the Universities of York and London, living in London for many years before moving to Norfolk. Her poetical career was launched with the Poetry Business Prize in 1991, and her first independent collection, The Country at My Shoulder (1993) was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award. She has since published seven further collections of poetry, with OUP and subsequently Bloodaxe: A Bowl of Warm Air (1996), one of the Independent on Sunday's Books of the Year; Carrying My Wife (2000), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation; Souls (2002); How the Stone Found its Voice (2005); Europa (2008), shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot prize; Homesick for the Earth (2011) comprising translations from the French poet Jules Supervielle; and At the Time of Partition (2013), again shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Split World (2008) includes work from her first five collections. In 2002 she received a Cholmondeley Award.

This archive consists of notebooks of poetical drafts, manuscript drafts, annotated typescripts, research, and correspondence - both personal and professional - of Moniza Alvi.

Collection Name and Collection Reference Code:

Collection Name: Alvi (Moniza) Archive

Archive Ref Code: MA

Date Range of Material

1990-2015

Type of Material

The personal archive of Moniza Alvi.

Size of Collection

2 boxes

How To Order Items From This Collection

Please use the finding aid below to search through a list of the individual items we have within this collection.If you find an item you would like to consult in the Special Collections reading room, simply make a note of the reference number and title of the item(s) you are interested in (for example MA/3/1 File of press cuttings and reviews).You can then place your order by linking to our Request Form.

Finding Aid

Archival catalogue available via the Archives Hub.

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Other resources

Material from this archive has been included in an exhibition 'Contemporary Poetry Collections: Poets and their Archives'.