Akhtar Raza Saleemi

Akhtar Raza Saleemi اختر رضا سلیمی
Born	16 June 1974 (age 40) Kekot,Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Nationality	Pakistani
Occupation	Poet

Akhtar Raza Saleemi (Urdu: اختر رضا سلیمی‎) is a Pakistani Urdu, Hindko and Potohari poet,writer, critic and editor. His birth name isMuhammad Pervaiz Akhtar (Urdu: محمد پرویز اختر‎).^{[1] [2][3][4]} He is a recognized poet of both gazal and nazm.^[5] He has published several poetry books and has been appreciated for his work by critics.^[3][6]

Early life and career[edit]

Saleemi was born on 16 June 1974, at Kekot, a village of district Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. He received his early education from his native village. Later he moved to Karachi. He completed his matriculation certificate there and moved again to Islamabad and settled there. He graduated from Allama Iqbal Open University. He also did his Masters from University of Sargodha in 2011.He joined the Pakistan Academy of Letters in Islamabad as an editor. A Master's level thesis has been done on his poetry and career from National University of Modern Languages (NUML) by a student Nazia Perveen in 2009.^[2] Saleemi has been praised and admired by various writers and critics,^[3][7]and about his poetry a critic writes; "Saleemi has chosen a difficult genre of ghazal. It goes without saying that it is very hard to compose effective couplets. He prefers thought to the word".^[3] Another critic wrote,"Saleemi portrays a unique blend of reality and dreams expressed with exacerbated sensibility, fine sharpness of his perception, clarity and splendour of his language."^[8]

Awards[edit]

• Quaid e Aazam literary gold medal for 2009^[1]

Bibliography[edit]

• Ikhtara 2003^[2] اختراع
• Irtafa 2008^[2] ارتفاع
• Khushbu marey saath chal pari hay^[2]…2009خوشبو مِرے ساتھ چل پڑی ہے)
• Khaawab Daan 2013^[2][5][8] (خواب دان) ( Urdu poetry)
• Har paasey parchaanwaan maahra^[2](ہر پاسے پرچھاواں مھاڑا) ( Potohaari poetry)
• Ye wohi alfaaz hain^[2](یہ وہی الفاظ ہیں) ( translations from Punjabi)