Bilal Shaw

Tony Barnstone teaches at Whittier College and is the author of 21 books and a music CD. His books of poetry include Pulp Sonnets; Beast in the Apartment; Tongue of War: From Pearl Harbor to Nagasaki; The Golem of Los Angeles; Sad Jazz: Sonnets; and Impure. He is also a translator or co-translator of world literature, primarily Chinese but also Spanish and Urdu.  His awards include: The Poets Prize, the Strokestown International Prize, the Pushcart Prize in Poetry, The John Ciardi Prize, The Benjamin Saltman Award, and fellowships from the NEA, NEH, and California Arts Council. He has also co-edited the anthologies Republic of Apples, Democracy of Oranges: New Eco-Poetry from China and the United States; Dead and Undead Poems; and Monster Verse. His new publications are a co-translation from the Urdu, Faces Hidden in the Dust: Selected Ghazals of Ghalib and a creativity tool, The Radiant Tarot: Pathway to Creativity. He is currently working on a libretto for an opera. 

Bilal Shaw is an American scientist who completed his PhD from the University of Southern California in quantum information science. In the past he has worked on DNA-based computation, software architecture, and theoretical self-assembly. Currently he works as a senior director of data-science in identity and risk analytics for Transunion’s Global Fraud Solutions vertical.  With Tony Barnstone he has completed an English translation manuscript of some of the best Urdu ghazals of Ghalib.  Some of these ghazals have been published in Literary Matters, Able Muse, and Arroyo Literary Review. With Tony Lee he has completed a translation of Mir Taqi Mir’s Urdu ghazals as well.  He currently lives and works in Santa Monica, California.