Astra Inclinant by Sascha Akhtar

Description

Building and unbuilding of one’s origin, like Notley does, the tension, the paradox of it. Sascha’s work is doing both or it. The paradoxical – physical – energy stemming from affirmations and negations, these constant contradictions, building of oneself and destroying it simultaneously: search for who one is and the rebellion against the search itself; an anti-pseudo-odyssey, is what she does? And the creative energy is in the both political and the fantastical? Yes, I think so. — Dr Agnes Lehoczky, 2019.

Sascha Aurora Akhtar feels deeply connected to her ancestral roots in Lancashire, South Yorkshire and Pakistan. Born into a literary family, with writers of both fiction and poetry represented, Sascha has been naturally drawn towards many kinds of writing.

Her first poetry collection was The Grimoire of Grimalkin (Salt, 2007), followed by 199 Japanese Names for Japanese Trees(Shearsman, 2016) & the first of its kind a deck of Poetry cards with fine art Only Dying Sparkles (ZimZalla 2018). In 2019, she has published The Whimsy Of Dank Ju-Ju (Emma Press 2019) & #LoveLikeBlood (Knives, Forks & Spoons Press 2019).

Her fiction has appeared in BlazeVox, Tears In The Fence, The Learned Pig, Anti-Heroin Chic, and Storgy.

Sascha has performed internationally at festivals such as the Poetry International Festival in Rotterdam, Avantgarde Festival in Hamburg, and Southbank Centre’s Meltdown festival in London, curated by Yoko Ono. Her first collection was called ‘ a contemporary masterpiece,’ by the Chair of the Department of French Literature, Thought and Culture at New York University. Sascha is the recipient of the DYCP grant from ACE. In September 2019, her poem Poems For Eliot, was named as the number one poem of the last five years by Poetry Wales.