POETRY

Born 0n December 15, 1957 in Bahawal Nagar, Punjab, Pakistan Saleem Shahzad is a trilingual poet, novelist, translator and historian of Pakistan. He is a retired Government Officer. His literary work, spanning 45 years, consists of 10 books: 06 poetry collections 02 Saraiki novels, a book of history, translations of short-stories from Punjabi and Saraiki into Urdu. Saleem Shahzad received National Literary Award twice (on collection of Saraiki poems “𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯 𝘛𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘢 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘩𝘳”, 2007 and Saraiki Novel “𝘎𝘩𝘢𝘢𝘯”, 2012) and 𝘛𝘢𝘮𝘨𝘩𝘢-𝘦-𝘐𝘮𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘻 from the Government of Pakistan in 2023. He transformed trend of traditional poetry style and diction, using the unusual and untouchable subjects in his poems with his zigzag shaped to lines. His novels also provide rejuvenation to themes and diction of Saraiki novels. So, he may unquestionably be labelled with the honour as a trend setter writer and poet. Saleem Shahzad’s novel “𝘎𝘩𝘢𝘢𝘯”(Whirlpool), published in 2012, has been considered as prediction to the pandemic CORONA because novel depicts story of an epidemic which confines people to homes wearing masks. Now-a-days, he has been working on another novel in Punjabi language. His two collections of poems are to be published soon.