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Moniza Alvi (b.1954 in Lahore, Pakistan) is a Pakistani-British poet and writer. Peacock Luggage, a book of poems by Moniza Alvi and Peter Daniels, was published as a result of the two poets jointly winning the Poetry Business Prize in 1991. Since then, Alvi has written five poetry collections: The Country at My Shoulder (1993), 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 Book of the Year; Carrying My Wife (2000), a Poetry Book Society Recommendation; Souls (2002); and How the Stone Found its Voice (2005), a series of short stories inspired by creation myths. In 2002 Alvi received the Cholmondeley Award for her poetry and in the following year, a selection of her works were published in Dutch. After a long career as a secondary school teacher, Moniza Alvi now tutors for the Open College of the Arts and lives in London. In the unique setting of the restored Portico Rooms at Somerset House, Moniza Alvi will read a selection of her own poems and some classic favourites. Curated by Ruth Padel as part of That Mighty Heart: Poets’ Visions of London, a season of free lunchtime poetry readings at Somerset House.