Dr. Maaz Bin Bilal
October 19, 2023 2024-04-04 10:53Dr. Maaz Bin Bilal
Dr. Maaz Bin Bilal
Professor
BA (Hons.), MA, MPhil English, University of Delhi;
PhD English, Queen’s University Belfast
Dr. Maaz Bin Bilal is a poet, translator, and cultural critic. He has published widely in journals, magazines and newspapers across genres. Maaz is the author of Ghazalnama: Poems from Delhi, Belfast, and Urdu and the translator of Fikr Tausvi’s Urdu diary into English The Sixth River: A Journal from the Partition of India. His work has been widely reviewed in India, the UK and the US. Excerpts from his translation of The Sixth River are also prescribed in the University of Delhi BA English (Hons.) syllabus. His poems have been translated into Irish Gaelic and Bangla.
Maaz earned his PhD for the dissertation on “From Hellenism to Orientalism: Friendship in E. M. Forster, with Reference to Forrest Reid,” which he is now revising into a monograph, Heterodoxies of Friendship in E. M. Forster’s work. He continues to research and write on ideas of the politics of friendship and multiculturalism, particularly in the South Asian context. He is also deeply interested in Urdu-Hindi poetry, and continues to research and translate it. His next book is a translation from Persian of Mirza Ghalib’s long poem on Banaras, Chirag-i-Dair.
Maaz has also recently begun writing creative prose in English, Urdu, and Hindi. He enjoys football, tennis, cooking, gardening, and fountain pens.
Politics of Friendship, E. M. Forster, Urdu-Hindi Literature (particularly poetry), Mirza Ghalib, Multiculturalism and Secularism, Fikr Taunsvi, Translation Studies, South-Asian Muslim Identity, Creative Writing, South-Asian Writing in English, Anglo-American Modernism.
Books:
Academic:
- Heterodoxies of Friendship in E. M. Forster: Queer and Beyond. Under Revisions. Forthcoming.
Poetry:
- Ghazalnama: Poems from Delhi, Belfast, and Urdu. New Delhi: Yoda Press, 2019. Print. ISBN:
Reviewed in World Literature Today, Wasafiri Magazine, The Hindu Business Line Ink, The Business Standard, Youth ki Awaaz.
Translation:
- The Sixth River: A Journal From the Partition of India. Trans. from Urdu of Fikr Taunsvi’s Chhata Darya from Urdu. New Delhi: Speaking Tiger, 2019. ISBN: 9789389231151.
Reviewed in Wasafiri Magazine, Biblio, The Book Review, Frontline, in, National Herald, The Wire, Firstpost, The Telegraph, The Outlook, The Hindu Business Line Ink.
Excerpts prescribed in “Partition Literature” course in the BA Honours English Program of University of Delhi, 2019—. - Temple Lamp. Trans. from Persian of long poem on Benares by Mirza Ghalib. New Delhi: Penguin, 2021. Print. Forthcoming.
- Onion Skins: Essays by Fikr Taunsvi. Trans. from Urdu of Fikr Taunsvi’s Pyaaz ke Chhilke from Urdu. New Delhi: Speaking Tiger, 2021. Print. Forthcoming.
Journal Articles
- “The Overseer of the Plague: Reading Oedipus Rex during COVID-19.” Economic & Political Weekly. June 20, 2020. Vol. LV no 25. pp. 19–20. ISSN 00129976. Print and Web.
- “The Journey beyond Passage into the University: The Relevance of E. M. Forster for (Indian) Academia.” Polish Journal of English Studies. 3.2 (2017), 25–36. ISSN 2543-5981 Print and Web.
- “The Afrazul Killing Video as Perfect Anti-Muslim Crime.” Economic & Political Weekly. December 16, 2017 Vol. LII no. 50. pp. 12-13. ISSN 00129976. Print and Web.
- “What the Old Testament God Never Forgives.” Seminar: The Monthly Symposium. ISSN: 0037-1947. October 2017. Print and Web.
Book Chapters
- “E. M. Forster’s Place in the Long Discourse of Friendship.” Ed. Laurent Mellet and Elsa Cavalie. Only Connect: E. M. Forster’s Legacies in British Fiction. Bern: Peter Lang, 2017. ISBN: 9783034325998. Print.
- “Postcolonial Literature, Globalization, and the Indian Postcolonial.” Ed. Someshwar Sati. Writing the Postcolonial: Poetics, Politics and Praxis. New Delhi: Worldview, 2016. ISBN: 978-93-82267-15-7. 199–228. Print.
Poetry, translations, op-eds, reviews and interviews may be found in the following journals, magazines, and newspapers, among others: Indiana Review, World Literature Today, Indian Literature, Himal Southasian, Indian Quarterly, Scroll.in, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, The Wire, Daily O, Dawn, Biblio, Jang, Business Standard, Postcolonial Text, EPW, Poetry at Sangam, National Herald, The Ego, Pratik, The Pen World, Café Dissensus, and Vayavya.
- Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowship in Translation and Writing at University of Wales Trinity St David with Literature Across Frontiers for Autumn 2018 (Nov. 2018–Feb 2019). https://www.lit-across-frontiers.org/profiles/maaz-bin-bilal/
- International University Studentship Award from Queen’s University Belfast, and Arts and Humanities Research Council, AHRC, UK, for the Project E.M. Forster–Forrest Reid Letters, 2011–14, toward full support of the PhD tuition fee and annual maintenance.
- ‘Apocalypse Now’: Fictions of Dystopia
- Translating India
- Rethinking Friendship
- Introducing Urdu: History, Politics, Poetics
- Classical Foundations of Literature
- Literature and Arts of the Renaissance
- Introduction to Literary Study