Manahil Bandukwala is a Pakistani-Canadian poet, writer, editor and visual artist based in Ottawa. She earned an undergraduate degree in English and Women’s and Gender Studies, followed by an MA in English from the University of Waterloo. Bandukwala’s work has been published an numerous literary journals. With her sister Nimra, she is co-lead of Reth aur Reghistan, a sculptural storytelling project that explores Pakistani folklore. Bandukwala is very active in some micro-press initiatives that produce collaborative chapbooks and poetry anthologies. For example, she along with six other Ottawa-based poets, including Ellen Chang-Richardson, will be releasing the chapbook Towers, in May 2021 from Collusion Books. Bandukwala was the Coordinating Editor for Arc Poetry Magazine. She is a columnist for Open Book, and Digital Content Editor for Canthius.
Poetry
Heliotropia
Kingston, Ont.: Brick Books, 2024.
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
Manahil Bandukwala’s second collection of poems is a meditation on love during times of social and political upheaval. As a sunflower’s growth reaches toward the sun, so, she suggests, is a lover’s growth compelled by the gravitational pull and soul-light of their beloved. Many of these poems are in conversation with other poets and artists, creating a lineage of call and response. Against a backdrop of terrestrial crisis, come, spend your precious minutes in love’s Heliotropia, where we are magnetized by the unfathomable dark matter of another person, and know ourselves as celestial bodies flowering in spacetime, together.
Poetry
Monument
Kingston: Brick Books, 2022.
e-book (Access restricted to members of the university community)
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
MONUMENT is a conversation with Mughal Empress Mumtaz Mahal, which moves her legacy beyond the Taj Mahal.
MONUMENT upturns notions of love, monumentalisation, and empire by exploring buried facets of Mumtaz Mahal’s story. The collection layers linear time and geographical space to chart the continuing presence of historical legacies. It considers what alternate futures could have been possible. Who are we when we continue to make the same mistakes? Beyond distance, time, and boundaries, what do we still carry?
Awards and Honours
2023 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award (League of Canadian Poets)(Finalist)
2023 Alcuin Award–Poetry for excellence in book design (2nd prize) Design by Natalie Olsen, Illustration by Manahil Bandukwala
Poetry (Chapbook)
Paper Doll
Toronto: Anstruther Press, 2019.
Poetry (Chapbook)
Pipe Rose
Ottawa: Battleaxe Press, 2018.
Edition of 100 copies.
Poetry (Chapbook)
Sprawl: The Time it Took Us to Forget
Co-author: Conyer Clayton
Collusion Books, 2020.
Fiction (Short stories; Chapbook)
Encounter: Stories & Sculptures based on Pakistani folklore
Manahil & Nimra Bandukwala
Vancouver: Rahila’s Ghost Press, 2022.
Fiction, Poetry and Art
Women Wide Awake: Stories, Sculptures and Poems from Sindhi Folklore
Manila Bandukwala and Nima Bandukwala
Toronto: Mawenzi House, 2023.
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
Women Wide Awake is a collection of stories, poems, and visual art exploring folklore from the region of Sindh, Pakistan. This multi-genre book features stories of women, witches, sea monsters, and mystical saints, accompanied by art and poetry. Collectively they explore themes that have resonated with people for centuries—acts of courage, strength, defiance, and love. Two sisters build a labyrinthine palace to test their suitors . . . a woman swims across a treacherous river at night to meet her forbidden lover . . . a bartendress makes a grave mistake. These folktales have persisted across generations and national boundaries through ritual storytelling and song. The sculptures were created using reclaimed materials: sari fabric, wedding invitations, flowers, shells, and animal bones.
Links
Manahil Bandukwala personal website
Publisher Anstruther Press
Publisher Battleaxe Press
Publisher Brick Books
Publisher Collusion Books
Publisher Rahila’s Ghost Press
Publisher Anstruther Press
Publisher Battleaxe Press
Publisher Brick Books
Publisher Collusion Books
Publisher Rahila’s Ghost Press