OUT NOW! Poet & Performer Shamshad Khan's debut collection: Megalomaniac

Shamshad Khan is a well-known UK poet and performer, so many of you may be interested to know that she has now committed her poems to print. Megalomaniac (Salt Publishing 2007) is her first solo poetry collection and is available to buy online or you can order it from bookshops.



You can find out more about Shamshad Khan - watch a podcast, hear her performing from Megalomaniac, download a PDF extract and check out her biog. and reviews - on her author page at Salt Publishing. For bookshop orders, the ISBN is 978-1-84471-312-7.


In this powerful debut collection, Shamshad Khan struts with attitude from the poetic to the polemic; side stepping from the satirical towards the spiritual. She has a keen awareness of rhythm and the spoken word. With wickedly simple language she explores themes of power, loss, identity and love.

"When i first saw Shamshad Khan read her poetry i was
so moved that i haven't stopped moving yet. I prayed
to the god of poetry that her work would be put into print.
Deliverance is sweet." Benjamin Zephaniah

Also, you can hear Shamshad on the radio this weekend:

Radio 4, Sunday 3rd June, 4.30pm on the Poetry Slot
The 'Poem of the Cloak' or Qasidah Burda is a devotional poem written by Egyptian poet Al-Busiri (between 1260-1268 CE). It is the inspiration for a new concert created and performed by women from Ulfah Arts and their director Naz Kosar. Radio 4 had been following the project over the last 9 months. The programme presented by Shamshad Khan brings the “Poem of the Cloak” to life as well as documenting the individual journeys of the Muslim women on the project. You can also hear it online for a week only on www.bbc.co.uk/radio4.