Anisur Rahman is a bilingual poet in English and Urdu, translator, and literary critic. Formerly a Professor of English at Jamia Millia Islamia, a Central University in New Delhi, and then Senior Advisor at Rekhta Foundation, the world’s largest website on Urdu language, literature, and culture (www.rekhta.org), he has worked and published in the areas of comparative, translation, postcolonial, and Urdu studies. He has six books, five edited/co-edited volumes, and two collections of Urdu poetry in English translation to his credit. His recent publications include Earthenware: Sixty Poems (Rubric Publishing, 2018), In Translation: Positions and Paradigms (Orient Blackswan, 2019) and Socioliterary Cultures in South Asia (Niyogi Books, 2019). His most comprehensive collection of Urdu ghazals in English translation from the very beginnings in the sixteenth century to now, Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi: The Wonderful World of Urdu Ghazals (HarperCollins, 2019), will soon have its sequel in Hazaar Rang Shaairi, showcasing the entire journey of Urdu nazm in English translation. 

Professor Rahman has been a Shastri Fellow at the University of Alberta, Canada (2001-2002) and a Visiting Scholar at Purdue University, USA (2007). As an academic administrator, he has served as Head, Department of English; Dean, Students Welfare; Director, Centre for Coaching and Career Planning; and Registrar, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.