Last of the Letters, by Fatima Ijaz

Poetry, chapbook, 24 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

The chapbook Last of the Letters questions the reality of what marks an end to an ongoing conversation between two people. In a series of 16 unsent, unanswered letters it asks whether the end is really the end. If closure comes with just breaking off physical contact, then these letters are wayward, pointless. However, in a scenario where there is no emotional closure, but the physical realm has been sealed off, where do the residue conversations go? The unsaid, the undeclared, that which was held back – how do all these conversations simmer inside someone?

These letters are then a distant conversation that is still taking place in the universe somewhere. They carry the belief that perhaps there still might be a possible meeting point! They hold the sensation of losing someone midway – when all that could be said, was not said. Thus, these letters acquire an after-life and hover on the horizon as question-marks. They are rendered in poetic prose first, and then in free verse poetry to mirror the attempt to hold on to reality which nevertheless disintegrates into an undying emotional whirlpool. Last of all, these are good bye letters and intuit a release and a letting go. There comes a time when this becomes not just easy but necessary, absolute.

Fatima Ijaz is a Karachi poet, who has recently received her Master in English and Media Studies (2024) from Rutgers University, where she was also teaching English to first year undergrads. Her poetry book, The Shade of Longing, was published by The Little Book Company in December 2021. Previously, she was teaching English and Speech at The Institute of Business Administration (IBA). Contributing editor at Pandemonium Journal, she is an English BA from Hartwick College, USA and York University, Canada and she also holds an English Linguistics MA from Eastern Michigan University, USA. Her poetry and short stories have been published in numerous publications including Kyoto Journal, Ideas&Futures, The Missing Slate, Unbroken Journal, Aleph Review, Tales from Karachi, The Write Launch, Rigorous and the Bombay Review. She was a poetry reader and panelist at Karachi Literature Festival (2020 - 2022), Bradford Literature Festival (2022) and Quetta Literary Festival (2022). She writes on culture and literature in Naya Daur, The Friday Times and Dawn. Her memoir was longlisted for the Zeenat Haroon Rashid Writing Prize 2022.