About Me

Hi, I am Anam Tariq, a poet, writer, book reviewer from India. I have been writing poetry since the age of 17. I have done B.A. (Hons.) in English literature from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and Masters in English from the same the university. I have also done “Art of Writing Non-Fiction Course” by Bound India. I am the founder and EIC of The Wordsridge Newsletter on Substack. I am currently a writer for Writers’ Cafeteria, The Incognito Press and SeaGlass Literary. I am also a prose & poetry reader at Culinary Origami Journal. My poems have appeared in poetry anthologies Scream It At The Back Wall, Going Off the Grid, India Without A Mask: The Poetics & Politics Of The Pandemic and Make the Days Count, and in lit. mags. like INKochi Cultural eMagazine, The Punch Magazine, New Reader Magazine, The Alipore Post, Spill Words, Lived

Collective, The Blahcksheep, Verse of Silence, The Shallot: Journal of Mental Health, Art & Literature, coalitionworks, The Chakkar, Swim Press, EKL Review, SeaGlass Literary, nether Quarterly and LiveWire. My debut poetry collection A Leaf upon a Book came out on 25th February, 2022 from Leadstart Publishers. Apart from inditing poetry, I have written academic research papers. One of my research papers, “Portrayal of Loss of Culture and Identity in Refugee Literature: An Analysis of Alan Gratz’s Refugee” has been published in one of Mindshare Yuva’s Book Series Novel Approaches to Contemporary Literature (approved by UGC). I presented the same paper on 19th July, 2021 in an online conference “Mindshare Yuva Research Conclave ’21” organized by Mindshare Yuva, India.

I also presented a paper titled “Being Biocentric in an Anthropocene World: Relation between Man and Nature in Frances H. Burnett’s The Secret Garden” at The 19th International Biennial Symposium On Literature And Culture In The Asia-Pacific Region on 27th Nov., 2022, held for the first time in India at Aligarh Muslim University.

I am a bibliophile too. I love reading contemporary novels. I have read contemporary writers such as Tracy Chevalier, Clare Machintosh, Diane Cook, Jokha Alharthi and Alan Gratz. And I am looking forward to read Robert Macfarlane, Richard Osman, Ocean Vuong, Sarah Hall, Francine Toon and others. Watch out for monthly book recommendations on my website!

Awards and Achievements

I won a 3rd prize in a Spell Bee Competition, in the College Fest Malhar 2017, organized by Women’s College, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India.
I won a 3rd prize in a Self-composed Poetry Competition, part of the Legal Awareness Events organized in 2018 by Aligarh Muslim University Students’ Union, AMU, Aligarh.
I got Prof. Zahida Zaidi Award and scholarship for scoring highest marks in B.A. (Hons.) English 2nd year.
I won a 3rd prize in a Self-composed Poetry Competition organized in January 2021 by Begum Azzezun Nisa Hall, Aligarh Muslim University as part of centenary celebrations.
I received Best Paper Award for outstanding performance in Young Scholars’ National Research Writing Competition 2021 organized by Mindshare Yuva, India in association with NSS and Government of Uttar Pradesh, India.
I won a Spell Bee Competition organized in September 2022 by Foster Reads, a literary community.