BARD WATCH: Local poet Dilruba Ahmed releases her first book

Local poet Dilruba Ahmed is celebrating the launch of her first book, Dhaka Dust, at The Black Sheep Irish Pub in Rittenhouse Square tomorrow.

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BARD WATCH: Local poet Dilruba Ahmed releases her first book

POSTED: Friday, July 15, 2011, 12:00 PM

Local poet Dilruba Ahmed is celebrating the launch of her first book, Dhaka Dust, at The Black Sheep Irish Pub in Rittenhouse Square tomorrow. Ahmed, who grew up in Ohio and western Pennsylvania but moved to Philly to be near family, draws on her Bangladeshi heritage to convey the mindset of a first-generation American. “Many of the poems have to do with my effort to represent a speaker who was shaped by western culture but at the same time was influenced by a ghost homeland — a homeland that was out of reach,” says Ahmed. Her parents first arrived in the United States in the late 1960s. While many of the poems take place in Bangladesh, a fair number take place in America and Europe as well, furthering the duality of the themes in her writing. One example of this can be found in her poem Ghazal.

The launch of Dhaka Dust is funded by Friends of Writers in conjunction with Warren Wilson College’s MFA Program for Writers (of which Ahmed is an alumna). The celebration will feature light refreshments, a cash bar, and readings by poets Tua Chaudhuri and Ross White, fiction writer James McAdams and, of course, Ahmed herself. And while you’re there, pick up your copy of the book for a discounted price and maybe chat it up with Ahmed. Trust us — she’s very friendly!

Sat., July 16, 8 p.m., free, The Black Sheep, 247 S. 17th St., friendsofwriters.org.

(andy.polhamus@citypaper.net)

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