Zaffar Kunial

Zaffar Kunial
Born
Birmingham, England
Alma mater

Zaffar Kunial is an English poet, essayist and academic. He has received a number of accolades for his work, including the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize and a Windham–Campbell Literature Prize.

Early life

Kunial was born in Birmingham to an English mother and a Kashmiri father. He graduated from the London School of Economics. He later took evening classes with Michael Donaghy at City, University of London.[1]

Career

Kunial's entry "Hill Speak" came third in the 2011 National Poetry Competition.[2] He won the 2013 Northern Writers' Award.[3] In 2024, three of his poems won him the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize.[4] His debut pamphlet was part of the 2014 Faber New Poets series.[5]

Kunial reunited with Faber & Faber for the publication of his debut poetry collection Us in 2018.[6][7] Us was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize[8] and the Costa Book Award for Poetry.[9] This was followed by Kunial's pamphlet Six in 2019.[10]

From 2019 to 2021, Kunial was a Douglas Caster Cultural Fellow of the University of Leeds.[11] Also in 2019, he was appointed Writer-in-Residence at the Brontë Parsonage Museum.[12]

Kunial's second collection England's Green was published in 2022.[13] That year, Kunial won the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for Poetry.[14] England's Green won a Ledbury Hellens Poetry Prize,[15] received the Laurel Prize for Poetry's second place,[16] and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, Rathbones Folio Prize[17] and the Ondaatje Prize.[18]

In 2023, Kunial served as Laureate of the Durham Book Festival.[19]

Personal life

Kunial lives in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire.[1]

Bibliography

Collections

Pamphlets

  • Zaffar Kunial: Faber New Poets 11 (2014)
  • Six (2019)

Select contributions

  • The Shape Remembrance Takes, 5 poems in The Pity (2014)
  • "Laburnum Time", essay in Arboreal (2016)
  • in Nature Matters: Vital Poems from the Global Majority (2025), edited by Mona Arshi and Karen McCarthy Woolf

Accolades

Year Award Category Title Result Ref.
2011 National Poetry Competition "Hill Speak" Third [2]
2013 Northern Writers' Award Won [3]
2014 Geoffrey Dearmer Prize "The Word", "Q", "The Fielder" Won [4]
2018 T. S. Eliot Prize Us Shortlisted [8]
Costa Book Awards Poetry Shortlisted [9]
2022 Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes Poetry Won [14]
2023 T. S. Eliot Prize England's Green Shortlisted [20]
Rathbones Folio Prize Shortlisted [17]
Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize Shortlisted [18]
Laurel Prize for Poetry Second [16]
Ledbury Hellens Poetry Prize Second Collections Won [15]

References

  1. 1 2 "Poet: Zaffar Kunial". Poetry International. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
  2. 1 2 Kunial, Zaffar (29 March 2012), "National Poetry Competition third prize: Hill Speak, by Zaffar Kunial", The Guardian, retrieved 8 February 2018
  3. 1 2 Lowes, Jude (11 December 2013). "Northern Writers' Awards win helps take Zaffar Kunial from Hallmark to Grasmere". New Writing North. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
  4. 1 2 "Zaffar Kunial wins the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize". The Poetry Society. 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
  5. ↑ Sawers, Geoff (27 January 2015). "Blog Review 39: Geoff Sawers Reviews the 2014 Faber New Poets Pamphlets". Magma Poetry. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
  6. ↑ Rumens, Carol (2 July 2018). "Poem of the week: Us by Zaffar Kunial". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
  7. ↑ Harris, Will (2018). "Review: 'Us' by Zaffar Kunial". Poetry School. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
  8. 1 2 Flood, Alison (18 October 2018). "TS Eliot prize announces 'intensely political' shortlist". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 20 October 2024.
  9. 1 2 "Shortlist, 2018 Costa Poetry Award – The Poetry Society". The Poetry Society. Archived from the original on 2022-12-07. Retrieved 2022-12-07.
  10. ↑ McRae, Andrew (27 October 2019). "Oval Time". Places of Poetry. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
  11. ↑ "People / Zaffar Kunial". University of Leeds Poetry Centre. Retrieved 24 January 2025.
  12. ↑ Knights, David (21 January 2019). "Writers Frank Cottrell Boyce and Zaffar Kunial team up to celebrate Patrick Bronte's life". Keighley News. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
  13. ↑ Rumens, Carol (21 November 2022). "Poem of the week: Foxglove Country by Zaffar Kunial". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 January 2025.
  14. 1 2 "Zaffar Kunial, Poetry 2022, United Kingsom". Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes. Archived from the original on 2023-01-15. Retrieved 2023-03-14.
  15. 1 2 Wood, Heloise (5 December 2023). "Kunial wins £5k Ledbury Hellens Poetry Prize". The Bookseller. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
  16. 1 2 "2023 Winners". Laurel Prize. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
  17. 1 2 "2023 Shortlist". The Rathbones Folio Prize. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
  18. 1 2 "RSL Ondaatje Prize 2023 Shortlist". Royal Society of Literature. 27 April 2023. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  19. ↑ Spanoudi, Melina (17 April 2023). "Winterson, Kunial and Myers to attend the 2023 Durham Book Festival". The Bookseller. Retrieved 8 January 2025.
  20. ↑ Shaffi, Sarah (2022-10-13). "TS Eliot prize announces a 'shapeshifting' shortlist". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-10-20.
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