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{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2025}}
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2025}}
{{Short description|Indian poet, editor, translator, and publisher}}
'''Asad Zaidi''' (born 31 August 1954)<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=असद ज़ैदी की प्रसिद्ध कृतियॉं : Pothi.org |url=https://pothi.org/en/author/asad-zaidi/ |access-date=2023-07-21 |website=pothi.org |language=en-US}}</ref> is an Indian poet, editor, translator, publisher, and literary critic. He has been a noted [[Hindi]] poet since the early 1980s.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dhar |first=Pranjal |date=2020 |title=Contemporary Hindi Poetry in India |url=https://www.goethe.de/ins/in/lp/prj/ptp/mag/en15613030.htm |website=www.goethe.de}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Khosla |first=Navjot |date=2020 |title=Maps of the Impossible: Six Contemporary Hindi Poets – Readings and Translations by Rajesh Sharma:: Autumn Art, 2019, Hardcover, ₹ 400, Paperback, ₹ 325. |url=https://sanglap-journal.in/index.php/sanglap/article/view/144 |journal=Sanglap: Journal of Literary and Cultural Inquiry |language=en |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=156–159 |issn=2349-8064}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rao |first=D. S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8JDsBBDoMccC&q=asad+zaidi+&pg=PA69 |title=Five Decades: The National Academy of Letters, India : a Short History of Sahitya Akademi |date=2004 |publisher=Sahitya Akademi |isbn=978-81-260-2060-7 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Hussain |first=Aftab |title=Romance of Urdu in India {{!}} Literati {{!}} thenews.com.pk |url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/565092-romance-urdu-india |access-date=2023-07-21 |website=www.thenews.com.pk |language=en}}</ref>

== Biography and works ==
Zaidi was born in [[Karauli]], Rajasthan.<ref name=":4" /> He first came to [[Delhi]] in 1974, where he has lived mostly ever since.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-01-14 |title=The city that chose to forget |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-city-that-chose-to-forget/ |access-date=2023-07-26 |website=The Indian Express |language=en}}</ref> From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, he attended the [[Jawaharlal Nehru University]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shubra |date=2014 |title=An interview with Sohail Hashmi, Documentary Filmmaker |url=https://www.jnu.ac.in/sites/default/files/jnunews/JNUNews_Sep-Oct_2014.pdf |journal=JNU News: Bimonthly Journal of Jawaharlal Nehru University |issue=5 |pages=18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Ik5AAAAIAAJ&q=asad+zaidi+centre+for+the+study+of+social+systems |title=Social Scientist |date=1984 |publisher=Indian School of Social Sciences |location=New Delhi |pages=72 |language=en}}</ref> Zaidi is married to the historian Nalini Taneja.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Naqvi |first=Jawed |date=2011-12-01 |title=Don't blame the Hindus |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/677107/dont-blame-the-hindus |access-date=2023-07-21 |website=dawn.com |language=en}}</ref>

=== Reception of poetry ===
Zaidi's first collection of poems ''Behne aur Anya Kavitaein'' (1980) established him as 'a distinctive voice in contemporary Hindi poetry' early on.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Samanvay Indian Languages Festival |url=http://www.ilfsamanvay.org/2014/speakers-2014.php |access-date=2023-07-22 |website=www.ilfsamanvay.org |archive-date=2023-07-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230722115407/http://www.ilfsamanvay.org/2014/speakers-2014.php |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1981, Zaidi was awarded the Sanskriti Award in recognition of his contributions to Hindi literature.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Recipients of Sanskriti Awards (1979-2011) - Literature |url=http://www.sanskritifoundation.org/awardees-list.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Sanskriti Awards for 1981 |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/signposts/story/19811031-colonel-sp-wahi-appointed-chairman-of-ongc-805983-2014-10-15 |access-date=2023-07-21 |website=India Today |date=15 October 2014 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1981 |title=The Sanskriti Awards for 1981 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gD5WAAAAYAAJ&q=asad+zaidi+hindi |website=googlebooks/books/edition/India_Today}}</ref> In 1993, [[Chaman Lal (writer)|Chaman Lal]] counted Zaidi among the third of the four generations of poets who were at that time actively composing in Hindi.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lal |first=Chaman |date=1993 |title=Trends in Contemporary Hindi Poetry : An Overview |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23336845 |journal=Indian Literature |volume=36 |issue=1 (153) |pages=141–145 |jstor=23336845 |issn=0019-5804}}</ref> Zaidi's poetic anthology ''Saman ki talash'' (2008) received much critical acclaim.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=17 June 2023 |title=Asad Zaidi's poems that created a stir in the world of Hindi literature |url=https://hindustannewshub.com/india-news/asad-zaidis-poems-that-created-a-stir-in-the-world-of-hindi-literature/ |website=hindustannewshub.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-06-17 |title=असद ज़ैदी की वो कविताएं जिन्होंने हिंदी साहित्य की दुनिया में हलचल मचा दी |url=https://hindi.news18.com/news/literature/poem-story-gazal-asad-zaidi-poet-poetry-collection-of-asad-zaidi-saman-ki-talash-saman-ki-talash-by-asad-zaidi-asad-zaidi-ki-kavitaayen-writer-asad-zaidi-poetry-of-asad-zaidi-manglesh-dabral-parikalpana-praka-6557705.html |access-date=2023-07-22 |website=News18 हिंदी |language=hi}}</ref> Commenting on this book, [[Manglesh Dabral]], noted poet and an old friend of Zaidi,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-12-10 |title=Hindi poet-journalist Manglesh Dabral dies |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/books-and-literature/famous-hindi-poet-manglesh-dabral-passes-away-7098627/ |access-date=2023-07-24 |website=The Indian Express |language=en}}</ref> wrote, "The rise of communal fascism in our politics and the communalization of the society is the main poetic concern of Asad Zaidi as a citizen. There are many unique poems on this decline of the society in this collection. For this, Asad sometimes comments on the politics of Hindi, sometimes evokes the memory of the fading classical-philosophical voice of a great singer like Amir Khan, and the language in which he does this is a new movement between Hindi-Urdu, an example of a new unity and a concerted effort to enrich our poetic language."<ref name=":3" /> In 2018, Aftab Hussain wrote of Zaidi in [[The News (Pakistan)|The News]] as 'a powerful exception' to the general absence of Muslims in the [[Hindi literature]] that came after the [[Partition of India]] in 1947.<ref name=":2" /> In 2022, [[Tarun Bhartiya]] wrote of Zaidi in [[Outlook (Indian magazine)|Outlook]] magazine: "Asad Zaidi’s poetic voice has remained at an angular relationship to the Hindi (Hindu, Hindustan) literary world. Having written some of the landmark and prophetic Hindi poems of the last half a century, Zaidi continues to be a difficult poetic phenomenon for Hindi."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bhartiya |first=Tarun |date=4 June 2022 |title=Discursive Ruminations: Three Poems By Asad Zaidi |url=https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/books/discursive-ruminations-three-poems-by-asad-zaidi-weekender_story-200255 |website=Outlook}}</ref>

Besides in his own books, Zaidi's poems appear in edited anthologies including Sharma (2019)<ref name=":0" /> and Stewart (2020).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stewart |first=Frank |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VgvPDwAAQBAJ&dq=asad+zaidi+poet&pg=PA193 |title=Displaced Lives: Fiction, Poetry, Memoirs, and Plays from Four Continents |date=2020-01-31 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=978-0-8248-8641-7 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Other works ===
At Delhi, Zaidi runs the Three Essays Collective, an independent publishing house.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Asad Zaidi, Author at RAIOT |url=https://raiot.in/author/asadzaidi/ |access-date=2023-07-21 |website=RAIOT |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-07-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230721220730/https://raiot.in/author/asadzaidi/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Asad Zaidi |url=https://www.catchnews.com/author/asad-zaidi-2090.html |access-date=2023-07-21 |website=www.catchnews.com}}</ref> There, he is also the editor of ''Jalsa'', an annual literary anthology of new writings and translations in Hindi.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jalsa – Three Essays Collective |url=https://www.threeessays.com/product-category/jalsa/ |access-date=2023-07-21 |language=en-CA}}</ref> Zaidi is proficient in Hindi, Urdu, and English. He has translated many works of European, Latin American, and Chinese poets from English into Hindi and Urdu.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Dharmarajan |first1=Geeta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DMqn8DVMgdkC&dq=asad+zaidi+poet&pg=PA215 |title=Katha Prize Stories: Volume 7 |last2=Sharma |first2=Meenakshi |date=1998 |publisher=Katha |isbn=978-81-85586-74-8 |language=en}}</ref> He has also translated works of [[Urdu poetry]] into Hindi, and of Hindi poetry into English.<ref>{{Cite web |title=hasrat mohani |url=https://www.rekhta.org/ebooks/detail/hasrat-mohani-m-habeeb-khan-ebooks |access-date=2023-07-22 |website=Rekhta |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Mukim |first=Mantra |title=How Kedarnath Singh, Vinod Kumar Shukla and Mangalesh Dabral defy established movements in Hindi poetry |url=https://caravanmagazine.in/reviews-essays/kedarnath-singh-vinod-shukla-mangalesh-dabral-defy-established-movement-hindi-poetry |access-date=2023-07-21 |website=The Caravan |language=en}}</ref> Besides, Zaidi is known as a literary critic.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Trivedi |first=Harish |date=2012 |title=Manto, God, Premchand and Some Other Storytellers |url=https://rajdhanicollege.ac.in/admin/ckeditor/ckfinder/userfiles/files/Manto&Premchand.pdf |journal=Social Scientist |volume=40 |issue=11/12 |pages=72}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=8 August 2007 |title=Meet the author - Uday Prakash |url=https://sahitya-akademi.gov.in/library/meettheauthor/uday_prakash.pdf |website=sahitya-akademi.gov.in}}</ref>

== Selected bibliography ==

=== As author ===
* ''Behne aur Anya Kavitaein'' (1980, in Hindi)
* ''Kavita ka Jeevan'' (1988, in Hindi)
* ''Saman ki Talash: Kavitaein 1989-2007'' (2008, in Hindi)
* ''Sare Shaam: Asad Zaidi ke Teen Kavita Sangreh'' (2014, in Hindi - a volume assimilating the three books above)

=== As editor ===

* ''Raghuveer Sahay'' (Vishnu Nagar and Asad Zaidi (eds.), 1994, in Hindi)
* ''Apni Zabaan: Sampradayikta Virodhi Kavitaon ka Sangreh'' (Vishnu Nagar and Asad Zaidi (eds.), 1994, in Hindi)
* ''Aaj ka Paath: Samkaaleen Hindi Kahani ka Ek Chayan'' (Asad Zaidi and Vishnu Nagar (eds.), 1994, in Hindi)
* ''Yah Aisa Samay Hai: Samkaaleen Hindi Kavita ka Ek Chayan'' (Asad Zaidi and Vishnu Nagar (eds.), 1994, in Hindi)

* ''Das Baras: Hindi Kavita Ayodhya ke Baad'' (Asad Zaidi (ed.), 2003, in Hindi)

== References ==
<references />

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:20th-century Indian poets]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian poets]]
[[Category:Hindi-language poets]]
[[Category:Hindi-language Indian writers]]
[[Category:People from Karauli district]]
[[Category:Poets from Delhi]]
[[Category:Writers from Delhi]]
[[Category:Indian Muslims]]
[[Category:Indian publishers (people)]]
[[Category:Indian literary critics]]
[[Category:Urdu-language translators]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian translators]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian translators]]
[[Category:Indian editors]]
[[Category:Jawaharlal Nehru University alumni]]
[[Category:Translators from English]]
[[Category:1954 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]

Asad Zaidi - Revision history

IBADorris7 at 02:22, 30 April 2026