Moniza Alvi was born in Lahore, Pakistan, and came to England when she was a few months old. She grew up in Hertfordshire and studied at the universities of York and London.

Peacock Luggage, a book of poems by Moniza Alvi and Peter Daniels, was published as a result of the two poets jointly winning the Book & Pamphlet Competition in 1991.

Since then, Moniza Alvi has written seven poetry collections: The Country at My Shoulder (1993), which was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award, and which led to her being selected for the Poetry Society’s New Generation Poets promotion; A Bowl of Warm Air (1996), one of the Independent on Sunday’s Books of the Year; Carrying My Wife (2000), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation; Souls (2002); How the Stone Found its Voice (2005), inspired by Kipling’s Just So Stories and Europa(2008), a Poetry Book Society Choice and shortlisted for the TS Eliot prize. Also published in 2008 Split World includes poems from her first five collections.

Moniza’s latest publication is At the Time of Partition (Bloodaxe, 2015) which was also a Poetry Book Society Choice and shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot prize.

Moniza Alvi now tutors for the Poetry School and lives in Norfolk. In 2002 she received a Cholmondeley Award for her poetry.