Aurangzeb Alamgir Hashmi

Background

Hashmi, Aurangzeb Alamgir was born on November 15, 1951 in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Son of Syed Sharif Ahmed Hashmi and Nasim Akhter Hashmi.

Education

Master of Arts, University Punjab, 1972. Master of Arts, University Louisville, 1977. Doctor of Letters, World Academy Arts and Culture, Luxembourg, 1984.

Career

Instructor English Government College, Lahore, Pakistan, 1971—1972, tutor English as a 2d language, 1972—1973. Lecturer South Asian languages and literatures University North Carolina, 1974—1975. Lecturer English Forman Christian College, Lahore, 1973—1974, University Louisville, 1975—1978, Open University, Zurich, since 1979.

Assistant professor English University Bahawalpur, 1979—1980. Research professor English and comparative literature Quaid i Azam University, Islamabad, since 1988. Visiting lecturer English University Zurich, since 1982.

Visiting professor English and comparative literature University Fribourg, since 1985. Visiting professor English literature Federal Government College for Men, Islamabad, 1986. Visiting professor American and African literatures Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 1986.

Associate professor English International Islamic University, Islamabad, 1985—1986. Professor, head department English University Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarabad, 1986—1987. Visiting professor English and comparative literature University Iceland, 2000.

Course director Foreign Service Training Institute / Foreign Service Academy, Pakistan Ministry Foreign Affairs, Islamabad, since 1988. Judge Commonwealth Writers Prize, 1990. Member jury Neustadt International Prize for Literature, 1996. Advisor National Book Council of Pakistan, since 1990, National Book Foundation, since 1993.

Judge Pakistan Academy Letters, since 1998. Sector warden Civil Defense, 1965-1966, Multan Cantonment.

Achievements

• Aurangzeb Alamgir Hashmi has been listed as a notable literature and language professor, author by Marquis Who's Who, International Who's Who.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Worlds of Muslim Imagination

    (an anthology of modern and contemporary multilingual lite...)

    1986
  • Sun and Moon and Other Poems

    (The poems in this collection were previously published in...)

    1992
  • The Poems of Alamgir Hashmi

    (comprises work from seven collections of poetry published...)

    1992
  • Pakistani Literature

    (The first-ever anthology of Pakistani literature in Engli...)

    1978
  • Postindependence Voices in South Asian writings

    (The first-ever creative and critical anthology of South A...)

    2001
  • A Choice of Hashmi's Verse

    (a selection by Oxford University Press, with a preface by...)

    1997
  • The Ramazan Libation

    (selected poems - chosen and introduced by John Kinsella.)

    2003
  • Your Essence, Martyr

    (Your Essence, Martyr: Pakistani Elegies ed. Alamgir Hash...)

    2011
  • The Oath and Amen 1976
  • My Second in Kentucky 1981
  • This Time in Lahore: new poems 1983
  • Neither this time/nor that place: poems 1984
  • Inland and Other Poems 1988
  • An Old Chair 1979
  • America is a Punjabi Word 1979
  • The Commonwealth, Comparative Literature and the World 1988
  • Commonwealth Literature : An Essay towards the Re-definition of a Popular/Counter Culture 1983
  • Ezra Pound 1983
  • Pakistani Short Stories in English 1993
  • Others to Sport with Amaryllis in the Shade 1993

Views

Quotations: From the author's poems:

"Perhaps if you look long enough, for an intent eye / there may be a piece of a star wandering in the sky."

"Love necessitates eagerness / To shake / January's cold hand / Not avert the eye / And look what comes / To love / Before its making."

"Future's the only flower worth tending in this earth, / where I sow my words daily: and you know, / these good trees bear fruit round the year, discreetly, / moving along the waterways / and four seasons of the faithful sun."

Membership

Founder The Townsend Poetry Prize, 1986. Founder-chairman standing international conference committee English in South Asia, since 1989. Judge Commonwealth Writers Prize, 1990.

Advisor National Book Council Pakistan, 1990—1995. Consultant National Book Foundation, 1993-2005. Member, Board of Governors, Pakistan Academy Letters, 2009-2012. Founder-President, The Literature Podium, 2010.

Fellow: Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists association, International Center Asian Studies. Member: Modern Language Association, Council National Lits., New York Academy of Sciences, Association Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies United Kingdom, Association Asian Studies, Associated Writing Programs, Poetry Society United Kingdom, International Association University Professors English.

• 

  University Punjab Syndicate , Pakistan

  1973 - 1974

• Institute of Contemporary Arts , United Kingdom

  1983

Personality

Alamgir Hashmi’s early as well as later work drew high praise from the poet Elizabeth Bartlett, and from William Stafford, Karl Shapiro, Richard Wilbur, and Anthony Hecht (all United States Poets Laureate/Consultants in Poetry to the Library of Congress).

Quotes from others about the person

• Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, described Alamgir Hashmi's poems as "a delight—sinuous and assured, serious with a light touch, full of character, surprise, authenticity."
  
  The British poet Jon Silkin wrote: "Hashmi's poems work delicacy kept in place and tension by an underlying sense of patience. The wit and the short lines he frequently uses, with a light-footed pace, strengthen these qualities."
  
  "Hashmi is now widely recognised as Pakistan's premier English-language poet and a major literary voice from Asia." —Carlo Coppola

Interests

• Walking, cricket, music, movies, old manuscripts, bookshops.

Connections

Children: Aniq, Cyril, Celine.

Father:

Syed Sharif Ahmed Hashmi

Mother:

Nasim Akhter Hashmi

child:

Celine Hashmi

child:

Aniq Hashmi

child:

Cyril Hashmi

Friend:

Ahmed Ali

writer, translator, critic, poet, diplomat

Friend:

Angus Calder

(Angus Lindsay Ritchie Calder) writer, historian, poet, lecturer

Friend:

Faiz Ahmed Faiz

References

• Spatial Constructs in Alamgir Hashmi's Poetry: A Critical Study
  2011
• The Subcontinent Palimpsest in Alamgir Hashmi’s Poetry South Asian Studies, Vol. 29, No. 1, January – July 2014, pp. 137-149.
  2014
• Alamgir Hashmi - Oxford Reference
  1994
• ALAMGIR HASHMI'S WANDERING SOUL: Literature-prize winner in Pakistan on JSTOR
  1988
• A Poet of Understanding in John Kinsella's Spatial Relations, 2 vols. (Rodopi/Brill)
  2013
• Alamgir Hashmi accessed February 14, 2021.
  2021
• Pakistani Poet, Scholar Hashmi To Read Oct. 29 Alamgir Hashmi reading at the University of Iowa - University of Iowa News Release, October 19, 2004.
  2004
• Political Renegotiation of Scriptural Spaces in Alamgir Hashmi’s Poetry South Asian Studies, Vol 29, No. 1, July- December, 2014, pp. 683-692.
  2014