KL Report
SRINAGAR
Rafiq Kathwari, a Kashmiri-American poet has won the prestigious 2013 Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award for his collection of 20 unpublished poems ‘In Another Country’. More than 11o contestants from across the world had participated in the contest.
The Kavanagh award is given for a first unpublished collection of poems in English and is open to poets born in Ireland, of Irish nationality, or long-term resident in Ireland.
A Kashmiri descent Kathwari, has become the first non-Irish to have won the award and will receive 1,000 euros as the prize money.
Kathwari, has been writing poems and essays for the last 30 years. He has translated selected Urdu poems of Alama Iqbal. His poems are mostly inspired by his mother’s long time illness.
Kathwari graduated from the University of Kashmir in 1969 before studying at the New York University and Columbia University.
