Blood, sword and suffering are the heartbeat of Fatima Bhutto’s literary soul

Posted on September 10, 2011

KARACHI (PPI): Blood, sword and suffering are the heartbeat of Fatima Bhutto’s

literary soul. And it was fear that propelled her poetry, says the heir to Pakistan’s

tragedy-scarred Bhutto family.An accomplished poet, Fatima, 29, captures love,

loss and the solitude of her circumstances in her verses.”I have not written poetry

for a very long time, but poetry like prose is ultimately a means of expressing

what seems difficult otherwise,” Fatima, who will be in India for the Kovalam

Literary Festival Oct 1-2, said in an email interview from Karachi to an Indian

news agency.”Kovalam will be my first visit to south India. And I’m looking

forward to seeing more of the country and interacting with new audiences

and opening bridges between our cities and stories.”She won’t be reading out

just from her poetry. Fatima has authored Whispers of the Desert, an anthology

of poetry, as well as 08.50 am, an account of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake,

and Songs of Blood and Sword, a searing document of the turbulence that had

ripped her family apart on her native turf.Born in 1982 in Kabul to Murtaza Bhutto,

the son of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Fatima carries the illustrious and violent lineage on her young shoulders.Fear propelled her to poetry, Fatima said. “It (fear) was a strong emotion. I started writing during a very violent time in Karachi’s history.

And it was a way of trying to make sense of the madness around,” Fatima said.

تبصرے