Shazea Quraishi was born in Pakistan, emigrated to Canada aged ten, and lived in Madrid before moving to London where she works as a writer, teacher and translator. A selection of her work was included in Bernardine Evaristo's Bloodaxe anthology Ten: new poets from Spread the Word in 2010. Her first pamphlet, The Courtesans Reply, was published by flipped eye in 2012. The Art of Scratching (Bloodaxe Books, 2015) is her first book-length collection.