Agha Shahid Ali (1949–2001),
a Kashmiri-American, was born in New Delhi and grew up in Kashmir. He taught at the University of Utah and the low-residency M.F.A. Program for Writers at the Warren Wilson College Wilson College, as well as at Hamilton College and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst
of Massachusetts-Amherst . His poetry collections include The Half-Inch Himalayas, A Nostalgist's Map of
America, The Country Without a Post Office, and, most recently, Rooms Are Never Finished (finalist
for the National Book Award, 2001). He was a translator of Faiz Ahmed Faiz (The Rebel's Silhouette; Selected
Poems) and editor (Ravishing DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English). He received Guggenheim and Ingram-Merrill
fellowships, among others. A postumous collection, entitled Call Me Ishmael Tonight, will be published in 2003.
