Tahir Hamut

Tahir Hamut Izgil (born 1969) is a modernist Uyghur poet, filmmaker, and author. His experiences as an intellectual during the rounding up of Uyghurs and his emigration to the west is described in his memoir Waiting to Be Arrested at Night, published in 2023.

Early life Izgil was born in a small town near Kashgar, Xinjiang and grew up in the city. Izgil was one of the first Uyghur poets to receive a fully bilingual education - in both Uyghur and Mandarin. Many of his poems have been said to be "filled with longing and exhaustion, enchantment and release."

The group's work revealed the "uncertainty of their religiosity". His poems have also been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Turkish, Swedish, French, and other languages. He states that his exile has disrupted his poetic practice - he feels that he doesn't have the same poetic inspiration and writes fewer poems. Later, he was blacklisted for jobs. In August 2017, as the Chinese government began its mass internment of Uyghurs, he fled with his family to northern Virginia, where he currently lives.

Izgil says distrust among Uyghurs abroad, many of whom suspect others spy for Beijing, has greatly reduced attendance to his poetry readings in the US.

After arriving in the US, he had a son in November 2019.

Activism Hamut delivers remarks at the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on July 24, 2018. Izgil has been active in speaking out against persecution against Uyghurs by the Chinese government. He gave a speech at US State Department’s "Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom", an event focused on addressing religious persecution around the world. Tahir Hamut Izgil was chosen to be their leader.

Izgil is now a film producer at Radio Free Asia, which has been active in documenting China's persecution of the Uyghurs.

2025 PEN Català Veu Lliure Prize (Free Voice Prize)

2024 Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing

2024 Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent

2024 Cikada Prize for Poetry

2023 National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize for Waiting to Be Arrested at Night

Selected bibliography

Western Modernist Literary Thought (Written in Uyghur, 2000, Xinjiang People’s Publishing House)

Selected filmography

The Moon Is a Witness (TV feature, 1999) Dark Mountain (TV feature, 2001) A Wistful Village Song (TV feature, 2003) Family Anecdotes (TV short, 2005) A Celebration of Hope: Nauroz Festival (Documentary short, 2011) An Old Passion, Meshrep (Documentary short, 2012) Qurban Eid in Photos (Documentary short, 2013) Kashgar Story (TV series, 2016)