About Mona Arshi
Mona Arshi is an acclaimed British poet, novelist, and former human rights attorney whose interdisciplinary career spans high-profile legal advocacy and award-winning literature. Before transitioning to creative writing, Arshi spent a decade litigating landmark judicial review and human rights cases for the civil liberties organization Liberty, representing notable figures such as Janet Alder and Diane Pretty, contributing to the historic Stephen Lawrence case, and defending refugees and survivors of domestic violence in private practice.After earning an MA in creative writing from the University of East Anglia, she published her debut poetry collection, Small Hands (2015), which received the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, followed by Dear Big Gods (2019) through Liverpool University Press’s Pavilion Poetry imprint. Her extensive literary portfolio includes the critically acclaimed debut novel Somebody Loves You (2021), shortlisted for both the Goldsmiths and Jhalak Prizes, as well as the co-edited anthology Nature Matters (Faber, 2025) and her third poetry collection, Mouth (Chatto & Windus, 2025).
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Arshi has served as an Honorary Professor at the University of Liverpool, a creative arts fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, and a writer-in-residence at Cley Marshes, where she developed digital eco-poetry embedded directly into the Norfolk landscape. Her writing frequently appears in prominent publications such as The Guardian, The Times, Granta, and The Yale Review, and she remains a prominent cultural commentator through regular BBC Radio broadcasts, educational instruction at institutions like the Arvon Foundation, and jury service for major literary accolades including the TS Eliot and National Poetry Prizes.
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If you plant a tree you have to accept it will be somebody else's shade.
