Mimi Khalvati

Mimi Khalvati (born 28 April 1944) is an Iranian-born British poet.

She is the recipient of the King's Gold Medal for Poetry for 2023, awarded for "her outstanding talent and ability to draw on diverse cultural traditions – Iranian, English and American – to enrich British poetry".

She was born in Tehran, Iran, on 28 April 1944.

She grew up on the Isle of Wight and was educated in Switzerland at the University of Neuchâtel, and in London at the Drama Centre and the School of Oriental and African Studies.

She then worked as a theatre director in Tehran, translating from English into Persian and devising new plays, as well as co-founding the Theatre in Exile group.

She now lives in London Borough of Hackney, and is a Visiting Lecturer at Goldsmiths College and a director of the London Poetry School.

Khalvati was 47 when her first book was published in 1991.

Its title, In White Ink, derives from the work of Hélène Cixous who claimed that women in the past have written "in white ink".

Michael Schmidt observes that Khalvati is "formally a most resourceful poet".

Khalvati is the founder of The Poetry School, running poetry workshops and courses in London, and is co-editor of the school's first two anthologies of new writing: Tying the Song and Entering The Tapestry.

She is also tutor at the Arvon Foundation, and has taught creative writing at universities and colleges in the United States of America and Britain.

Her most recent collection of poems, Afterwardness, was a 2019 Poetry Book Society Winter Wild Card choice, as well as a Sunday Times Book of the Year.

In January 2024, Khalvati was announced as the 2023 recipient of the King's Gold Medal for Poetry, awarded for excellence in poetry.