Ali Alizadeh is a poet listed on the prescribed text list for the senior English/EAL courses in Queensland from 2019-2021.

He is an Iranian-Australian (Persian-Australian? would appreciate any correction in comments), currently living in Melbourne and working at Monash university.

Both my creative writing and my literary scholarship interrogate the collisions between the political, the personal and the historical. Radical subjectivity, philosophies of history and theories of art are of particular interest to me. (Alizadeh’s bio, July 2018)

I searched for some preliminary resources for teachers wanting to learn about Ali Alizadeh, and here is what I found:

• Staff profile for Alizadeh at Monash University: http://profiles.arts.monash.edu.au/ali-alizadeh/
• Poetry International Web bio (with several linked articles): https://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poet/item/14574
• Poetica episode from 2nd November, 2013 (39 mins): http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/poetica/ali-alizardeh/5026248?
• Writers Victoria – Ali Alizadeh interviewed by Michelle McLaren, 24 May 2016: https://writersvictoria.org.au/writing-life/on-writing/exploring-the-distance-between-now-and-then

I read in his uni bio that he has written three volumes of poetry, but the one that comes up consistently when searching his name is Ashes in the air (UQP, 2011):

• Overland article – by Tara Mokhtari, June 2011: https://overland.org.au/2011/06/ali-alizadeh%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98ashes-in-the-air%E2%80%99/ (loved this article!)
• Australian Book Review – review by Gig Ryan, April 2011: https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/2011/241-ali-alizadeh-ashes-in-the-air (full article is paywalled)

The earlier two volumes are called:

eliXir: a story in poetry, Grendon Press, Mont Albert, 2002
Eyes in Times of War, Salt Publishing, Cambridge, UK, 2006

A sample of Alizadeh’s poetry (poem extract):

Yes, I understand
your language. I’ve been learning

the lexicon of my inferiority
from behind the bars. I now know

how to spell and pronounce
the terms of my slavery. Your shackles

are called Security; your war
Operation Freedom; your cluster bombs

food parcels for my children. O master,
I understand

(extract from ‘Your terrorist’ (2006) on Poetry International Web: https://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poem/item/14577)

An extract from Mokhtari’s Overland article:

What really does it for me about Alizadeh’s poetry is that his subject matter is important. These poems are unlikely to bore a reader who shies away from the overtly political because they also engage in everyday scenarios and experiences. Alizadeh’s poems about cultural displacement take a different approach from many other Australian poets who write on the same theme but tend to dwell in the realm of sentimentalism (a natural, valid treatment of the theme, but one which may risk alienating un-empathetic readers). It’s as though these poems have ‘gotten over it’ just enough to allow a more sophisticated depth of knowing and exploration of the subject through everyday representations, without compromising emotion.

If you know of other resources that would interest Queensland English teachers who are considering Alizadeh’s poetry for QCE study, please consider sharing your links/info in comments below. Thank you!