{"id":22143,"date":"2022-10-28T15:46:53","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T19:46:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/?post_type=cu_people&p=22143"},"modified":"2026-05-12T12:16:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:16:53","slug":"manahil-bandukwala","status":"publish","type":"cu_people","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/people\/manahil-bandukwala\/","title":{"rendered":"Manahil Bandukwala"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I completed my B.A. in English from Carleton in 2020, and have since gone on to complete my M.A. and publish two full-length poetry collections. My writing life is greatly informed by my time at Carleton, from the creative-writing courses to my involvement with the then-running student magazine In\/Words<\/em>. I developed community-building and writing skills through the English Literature Society\u2019s weekly Writers\u2019 Circle, and met and connected with poets from Ottawa\u2019s literary scene through events like the Spring Extravaganza, some of whom are my close friends and writing champions today! The department\u2019s prizes like the Lilian I. Found Award and George Johnston Poetry Prize were the first literary awards I ever won, and they helped boost my confidence as a writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My debut poetry collection, MONUMENT<\/em> (Brick Books, 2022), was written during my time at Carleton, and has been influenced by the courses I was taking at the time. Additionally, my multidisciplinary project, Reth aur Reghistan<\/em><\/a>, an exploration of Pakistani folklore, received a lot of support from professors at Carleton and the earliest grants I secured for the project were thanks to this support. Years later, I completed an artist residency for the project and have a book of stories, visual art, and poems called Women Wide Awake<\/em><\/a> (Mawenzi House, 2023). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m continuously working on projects, which you can follow on my website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How has your Carleton English degree informed your professional and\/or creative<\/strong> path?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My writing career has flourished thanks to my Carleton degree and the connections I made on campus. I started out volunteering with In\/Words<\/em> Magazine<\/em>, which opened an opportunity for me to work as Coordinating Editor for Arc Poetry Magazine<\/em>. I\u2019ve since completed an internship with the Canadian poetry press Brick Books<\/a> and now work there as its Managing Editor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The connections I made at Carleton also helped me understand the world of arts grants. I\u2019ve successfully applied for numerous grants that have allowed me to work as a semi-professional writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Carleton? What specific experiences or opportunities did you benefit from<\/strong> while studying English at Carleton?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was drawn to the English program at Carleton because of its relatively small size, which gave me opportunities to connect with professors and students, and really learn about Carleton\u2019s and Ottawa\u2019s writing communities. The Co-Op Program was also a great place to try out different skills and types of jobs, and has continuously helped me in my professional life today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23628,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cu_people_first_name":"Manahil","cu_people_last_name":"Bandukwala","cu_people_initials":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_people_type":[26,138],"cu_people_expertise":[],"class_list":["post-22143","cu_people","type-cu_people","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_people_type-alumni","cu_people_type-alumni-cw"],"acf":{"cu_people_job_title":"Writer, Visual Artist, and Editor; Managing Editor at Brick Books","cu_people_degree":"BA Honours English with a Minor in Women's and Gender Studies (Carleton, 2020); MA English (Waterloo, 2022)","cu_building":"","cu_people_office_num":"","cu_people_pronoun":"","cu_people_designation":"","cu_people_email":"","cu_people_phone":"","cu_people_phone_ext":"","cu_people_linkedin":"","cu_people_bluesky":"","cu_people_twitter":"","cu_people_instagram":"","cu_people_facebook":"","cu_people_website":"www.manahilbandukwala.com","cu_people_orcid":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/22143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_people"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/22143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28299,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people\/22143\/revisions\/28299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_people_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people_type?post=22143"},{"taxonomy":"cu_people_expertise","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_people_expertise?post=22143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}