Skip to content

Teacher Feature: Nishat Ahmed

Nishat Ahmed: The Emo Kid of Poetry

Take one of Nishat’s Classes: Unlocking Sounds in Poetics and How to Ask Questions in Poems!

 

“If we can’t find joy while doing the work of writing, then what’s the point?” – Nishat Ahmed

 

Take Nishat’s classes if you want to be in an environment that hopes to break the traditional workshop/seminar/class structure! Nishat’s teaching philosophy is to not just speak at you, but speak with you. These classes are for people curious not for shortcuts in their writing, but truly getting to know who you are with your words. 

 

“Even if there is an afterlife or if there is not, what is absolutely certain is that our time to walk this planet and experience things in our lifetime is painfully finite. Of all the things we can know or do, how could anything but love sit at the center of every orbit? I feel the sun shining on my face and I think about love. I watch someone take a bite out of a sandwich while sitting on a crowded bus and I think about love. Even silly things like a spoon left in the kitchen sink make me think about love. And I wonder, I do, how many hurts and pains we could erase or soothe if all we ever did was think and talk about love. Even the way the mouth moves when you say it: “love.” Doesn’t that make your mouth feel like a violin? Mine does. Mine does, and I want to play that note forever.” -Nishat Ahmed

 

Nishat’s favorite authors:

  • Kelsey Wort
  • Ocean Vuong
  • Tim Siebles
  • Luisa Igloria
  • Hanif Abdurraqib
  • Paige Lewis
  • Kaveh Akbar
  • Remica Bingham-Risher

Learn more about Nishat here, on his website, Instagram, or Twitter. Read some of his work here, and see his Instagram where he hosts a weekly live reading of poetry with AMAZING guests here!