Mimi Khalvati

Mimi Khalvati at the British Library 12 April 2011

Mimi Khalvati is an Iranian-born British poet.

Life and career

She was born in Tehran, Iran in 1944. She grew up on the Isle of Wight and was educated in Switzerland at the University of Neuchâtel, and in London at the Drama Centre and the School of Oriental and African Studies. She then worked as a theatre director in Tehran, translating from English into Persian and devising new plays, as well as co-founding the Theatre in Exile group. She now lives in Hackney and is a Visiting Lecturer at Goldsmiths College and a director of the London Poetry School.

Khalvati was 47 when her first book appeared.^[1] Its title, In White Ink, derives from the work of Helene Cixous who claimed that women in the past have written 'in white ink'. Michael Schmidt observes that Khalvati is "formally a most resourceful poet".^[2]

Khalvati is the founder of The Poetry School, running poetry workshops and courses in London, and is co-editor of the school's first two anthologies of new writing: Tying the Song and Entering The Tapestry. She is also tutor at the Arvon Foundation, and has taught creative writing at universities and colleges in the US and England.

Works

• In White Ink (Carcanet Press,1991)
• Mirrorwork (Carcanet Press ,1995)
• Entries on Light (Carcanet Press, 1997)
• Selected Poems (Carcanet Press, 2000)
• The Chine (Carcanet Press, 2002)
• The Meanest Flower (Carcanet Press, 2007)

References

1. ^ Schmidt, Michael: Lives of the Poets, p 858. Wiedenfeld and Nicolson, 2007.
2. ^ Schmidt, Michael: Lives of the Poets, p 859.

External links

• Poetry School website
• Profile at Poetry Translation Centre, with links to poems, articles, audio and video footage
• Mimi Khalvati official website
• Listen to Mimi Khalvati reading her poetry - a British Library recording, 14 July 2008.
• Profile and poems, written and audio at Poetry Archive
• Second Light profile and poems
• "Interview: Labelled a "Persian poet", Mimi Khalvati owes as much to the Isle of Wight as Iran" Independent 17 August 2007

Persondata
Name	Khalvati, Mimi
Alternative names
Short description	Poet
Date of birth	1944
Place of birth	Tehran
Date of death
Place of death