Adal Soomro

Dr Abdul Karim, popularly known by his literary name Adal Soomro, is an eminent poet and prose writer, born on 15 August 1953 in Sukkur. He earned his Ph.D. in Sindhi Literature in 1999 and served as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Sindhi at Shah Abdul Latif University until 14 August 2013. His first poem was published in 1969, and by 2019 he had completed 50 years of literary work. He has published 17 books of poetry and prose, compiled and edited 20 books, and contributed 18 books of children’s literature under a USAID program. Over 200 of his literary papers have been published. He has participated in about 2,000 programs as a guest speaker and poet, and more than 200 of his works have been recorded for TV and radio. Adal Soomro has earned great acclaim among Pakistani writers and has been associated with many literary organizations. He served twice as Secretary General of Sindhi Adabi Sangat. His poetry is included in primary, secondary, and master’s level Sindhi curricula and has been translated into English, Urdu, and Punjabi. In addition to numerous awards and honors from literary organizations, he is the recipient of the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (2010), Best University Teacher Award (2006) by HEC, Institute of Sindhology Awards (1982, 1984, 2016), Sindhi Language Authority Awards (1993, 2016, 2019), Shah Abdul Latif Award (2016), and Mirza Kaleech Baig Award (2019) by the Pakistan Academy of Letters. In the words of the great poet Shaikh Ayaz: ‘Adal Soomro has introduced new trends in his poetry. He is versatile in his thoughts and modernist in themes.’