Shamshad Khan

Shamshad Khan studied Biology and Animal Behaviour and became a secondary school science teacher. Since 1998 she has been literary advisor to the North West Arts Board. She has been co-editor of the anthologies Black Women's Poetry (1999) and Peace Poems (2003). She was a member of the Commonwealth project Mushiara Shake-up, with the participation of women poets and artists from England, India and Pakistan; and is a member of Lychee Lounge, a Southern Asian artists collective.

She has made radio programmes such as Love Thang (Radio 4, 1996, 1997) and Woman's Hour (Radio 4, 1998). She has directed creative writing workshops for Asian women and groups of young people in various schools, and for the Refugee Support Network.

In 1994 she published The Woman and the Chair. Her poetry has been included in numerous anthologies, such as Flame, Poetry of Rebellion (1997), The Firepeople (1998), Bittersweet (1998), Healing Strategies for Women at War (1999), Gargoyle (1999), Poems for your Pocket (1999), Anthology of British South Asian poets (2000), Kala Kahania (2002), Crimson Feet (2003) and Velocity (2003).

She has given various shows with her poems, readings and stagings, in which she combines soundtracks, contemporary dancers and musicians: Apples & Snakes (Battersea Arts Centre, 1997-2001), The Drum (Birmingham, 2003), Asia on the Road (Denmark, 2003), Bones (Berne, Switzerland, 2003), Hard Cut: a poetic monologue (directed by Mark Whitelaw; music by Basil Clarke; Glasgow, 2002). Hard Cut: beautiful and unsettling (Switzerland, 2003) and Megalomaniac, her latest work which will be shown for the first time in Manchester this October.