authors/moderators
Aamer Hussein
Aamer Hussein was born in Karachi, Pakistan, and moved to London in 1970. He is the author of five collections of short stories: Mirror to the Sun (1993), This Other Salt (1999), Turquoise (2002), Cactus Town: Selected Stories (2003) and Insomnia (2007). He is also the editor of Kahani: Short Stories by Pakistani Women (2005). He reviews regularly for The Independent. His most recent work is a novella, Another Gulmohar Tree.
Muneeza Shamsie
Muneeza Shamsie is the Regional Chairperson (Europe and South Asia) of the Commonwealth Writers Prize 2010. She is the editor of three pioneering anthologies of Pakistani English literature including And the World Changed: Contemporary Stories by Pakistani Women. She is the representative, Pakistan, for the annual bibliographic issue of The Journal of Commonwealth Literature and has also contributed critical essays on literature for many other publications including Commonwealth Essays and Studies, Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, The Oxford Companion to the History of Pakistan (forthcoming), the online Blackwell Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Fiction (forthcoming), and the online Literary Encyclopedia. She writes regularly in Pakistan for Dawn and Newsline, is Managing Editor of a work-in-progress, The Oxford Companion to the Literatures of Pakistan and is also writing a history of Pakistani English Literature.
Iftikhar Arif
Iftikhar Arif is an Urdu poet, scholar, and littérateur. He was born in Lucknow in 1943 and lived there till his migration to Pakistan in 1965. Iftikhar Arif has served as the chairman of Academy Adbiyat, the Pakistan Academy of Letters and is currently the chairman of Muqtadra Quami Zaban, the National Language Authority. His works Mehr-e-Doneem, The Twelfth Man, Jahan-e-Maloom, and Harf-e-Baryab have been widely published and translated into several languages. He has won many awards including the Sitara-e-Imtiaz, Pride of Performance (Literature), and Faiz International Award for Poetry.
Kishwar Naheed
Kishwar Naheed is one of the best-known feminist poets of Pakistan. In a field dominated by traditional male voices, Naheed, writing in Urdu, was a pioneer of a new, distinctively feminine voice and has produced over the span of thirty years a body of work that is innovative, defiant, political, and self-aware. Her first collection of poetry, Lab-i Goya, published in 1968, won the prestigious Adamjee Prize for Literature. Her poetry has been translated into English and Spanish. She has held the position of Director General of the Pakistan National Council of Arts, edited a prestigious literary magazine called Mah-i-Naw, and founded an organization named Hawwa (Eve) whose goal is to help women become financially independent through cottage industries.
Intizar Hussain
Intizar Hussain, SI, is an eminent Urdu fiction writer. He writes short stories and novels in Urdu, and also columns for newspapers in English. Intizar Hussain has developed a unique prose style and is known for his nostalgia for older places and phenomena. He has received many awards from Pakistan, India and the Middle East. The Seventh Door and Leaves are some of his books translated into English. He has translated widely from English to Urdu. ‘Hindustan se Aakhri Khat’, ‘Agay Samander Hai’, ‘Shehr-e-Afsos’ and ‘Wo jo Kho Gaye’ are some of his important writings.
Zulfiqar Ghose
Zulfikar Ghose was born in Sialkot, Pakistan, and has lived in England and the United States for much of his life. He was a professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin from where retired in 2007. Zulfikar Ghose has written both poetry and prose. The Loss of India, Jets from Orange, The Violent West, A Memory of Asia and Selected Poems are some of his poetry books. He has also published a number of novels including The Contradictions, The Murder of Aziz Khan, The Incredible Brazilian trilogy, and The Triple Mirror of the Self. Beckett’s Company: Selected Essays and 50 Poems: 30 Selected 20 New are his recently published works.
H. M. Naqvi
H. M. Naqvi is a graduate of Georgetown and the creative writing program at Boston University. He won the Phelam Prize for poetry and represented Pakistan at the National Poetry Slam in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In recent years, he taught creative writing at Boston University, and presently divides his time between Karachi and the US. Home Boy is his debut novel.
Amberina Kazi
Amberina Kazi is Professor of English and former
Chairperson, Department of English, University of Karachi. She has been
involved in curriculum development and evaluation, writing textbooks,
teaching courses in research methodology, nineteenth century and
modern literature and Pakistani literature in English.
Adrian Hussain
Adrian Husain received a Ph.D. in English Literature for his thesis on Shakespeare, Machiavelli, and Castiglione. He has been called the finest Pakistani poet writing in English and says that he aspires to write verse that transcends time and space, rather than specifically Pakistani ethnic poetry. Adrian Husain’s poetry has been published in the United States and the United Kingdom in addition to his native Pakistan. In 1968 he won the Guinness Poetry Prize. He often writes articles in Dawn and other newspapers. He currently lives in Karachi and is working on a monograph on Shakespeare’s Richard II.
Mohammed Hanif
Mohammed Hanif was born in Okara, Pakistan. After leaving the Pakistan Air Force Academy to pursue a career in journalism, he worked for Newsline, India Today, and The Washington Post. He has written plays for the stage and screen, including a critically acclaimed BBC drama and the feature film The Long Night. Mohammed Hanif's novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes was longlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the 2008 Guardian First Book Award. He won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in the Best First Book category in 2009 and is also the recipient of the Shakti Bhatt First Book Award. He works as a special correspondent for BBC Urdu and is based in Karachi
Mohsin Hamid
Mohsin Hamid was born in 1971 in Lahore. After studying at Princeton University and Harvard Law School, he worked as a management consultant in New York and London. His first novel, Moth Smoke (2000) won the Betty Trask Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award. His second novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) was shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize. Mohsin also writes essays and articles for The Guardian, Time, The New York Times, The Independent, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, and Paris Review. He now lives and writes in Lahore.
Fahmida Riaz
Born in Meerut, India, and educated in Hyderabad and London, Fahmida Riaz is counted among the front rank of writers and poets of Urdu. She has been writing poetry and stories since the age of 15 and has been involved in social and political activism since her college days. Fahmida’s work is remarkable for its emotionally charged references to social and political injustice. She has been a prominent voice in the feminist struggle in Pakistan, where her poems both directly and insidiously erode at the foundations of male dominance. Fahmida Riaz was given the Himmett-Hellman award by Human Rights Watch, New York, in 1997.
Shamsur Rahman Faruqi
Shamsur Rahman Faruqi is an eminent Urdu critic, poet and theorist, who has nurtured a whole generation of Urdu writers since the 1960s. He is regarded as the founder of the new movement in Urdu literature and has formulated fresh models of literary appreciation. With rare skill and clarity, he absorbed western principles of literary criticism and subsequently applied them to Urdu literature, but only after adapting them to address literary aesthetics native to Arabic, Persian, and Urdu.
Asif Farrukhi
Asif Farrukhi is a literary critic, translator, and fiction writer. He has translated widely from English into Urdu and vice versa and has edited and compiled many anthologies of the writings of Pakistani authors. He also writes on literature for Dawn and other newspapers and periodicals. Asif has published six collections of short stories and two collections of literary criticisms. He is currently editing and publishing a literary miscellany in Urdu called Duniyazad. He has been awarded the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz for his literary contributions.
Zehra Nigah
Zehra Nigah is one of the foremost female Urdu poets of Pakistan. She has received various awards at home and abroad in recognition of her works. She is also a scriptwriter of several popular television serials and films, including the award-winning Hindi film `Pinjar'.
Sahar Ansari
Sahar Ansari is an Urdu poet, critic, and scholar of Urdu literature and linguistics. He was associated with the University of Karachi in the capacity of Professor and Chairman of the Urdu Department. Sahar Ansari is not only regarded as a poet but also as a scholar of the first order. The range of subjects that has chosen to write about in verse shows how well-read he is. Professor Sahar has been awarded Tamgha-e-Imtiaz by the Government of Pakistan in recognition of his poetry.
Anwar Shaoor
Anwar Shaoor is one of the most prolific Urdu poets of our times. He has claimed an immense following amongst admirers of Urdu poetry and has also received high accolades from critics and contemporaries. With three collections of ghazals to his credit, Andokhta, Mashq-e-Sukhan, and Mee Raqsam, his work is read in literary journals around the world. Anwar Shaoor has an amazing ability to blend profound thought with simple diction and is arguably the best exponent of sehl-e-mumtina in Urdu ghazal.
Shahida Hasan
Harris Khalique is a critically acclaimed Pakistani poet writing in both Urdu and English with seven collections of poetry to his credit. He also writes poems in Punjabi. He co-wrote a book of creative non-fiction with the partitions of South Asia in 1947 and 1971 serving as the backdrop. Besides contributing occasionally to numerous magazines, journals, and newspapers, Harris writes a weekly column in The News International.
Imdad Hussaini
Imdad Hussaini is a prolific poet writing in the Sindhi language.
Musharraf Ali Farooqi
Musharraf Ali Farooqi is an author, novelist and translator. He was born in Hyderabad, Pakistan, and now divides his time between Toronto, New York and Karachi. His novel The Story of a Widow (2008) was longlisted for the 2010 IMPAC-Dublin Literary Award. His children's fiction includes the picture book The Cobbler's Holiday Or Why Ants Don't Wear Shoes (2008) and a forthcoming collection The Giant of the Bakery and Other Stories. He is the author of the critically acclaimed translations of Urdu classics, The Adventures of Amir Hamza (2007), and the first book of a projected 24-volume magical fantasy epic, Hoshruba (2009).
Raza Rumi
Raza Rumi is a freelance writer from Lahore, Pakistan. He writes regularly for the Pakistani weekly The Friday Times, The News and Dawn on myriad topics such as history, arts, literature, and society. Raza blogs at Jahane Rumi, a website devoted to Sufi thought, the arts, literature, and cultures of South Asia. He also edits a cyber-magazine Pak Tea House. Raza has worked in Pakistan and abroad in various organizations including multilateral institutions such as the United Nations.
Sadia Shepard
Sadia Shepard is the author of
The Girl from Foreign: A Memoir (2008). Her
writings have appeared in The Washington Post, The New York
Times, and The Indian
Express.
In addition to writing, she produces documentary films. Her film ‘In
Search of the Bene Israel’ is currently being
screened in film festivals around the world. Sadia teaches creative
non-fiction writing at Columbia University and lectures widely about growing
up in a multi-faith home.
Samina Quraeshi
Working in various media dimensions including painting, lithography, calligraphy, and collage, Samina Quraeshi takes inspiration from the Sufi traditions of the Indus Valley. Her work draws on the multi-layered symbolic and visual resources of the cultural, religious and historical mixing that characterizes South Asia. She is the author of five books including her latest publication Sacred Spaces: A Journey with the Sufis of the Indus.
Bapsi Sidhwa
Internationally acclaimed author Bapsi Sidhwa was raised in Lahore, Pakistan, and now lives in Houston, Texas. Her five novels Water, An American Brat, Cracking India, The Bride, and The Crow Eaters have been translated and published in several languages. Her anthology Beloved City: Writings on Lahore was published in 2006. In 1991, Bapsi was awarded the Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Pakistan's national honour in the arts and in 1994, the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writer's Award.
Sarfraz Manzoor
Sarfraz Manzoor is a journalist, author and broadcaster. He is currently employed by The Guardian but his writing has been featured in, amongst others, Esquire, Prospect, The New Statesman, The Observer and Index on Censorship. His television credits include writing and presenting ‘Luton Actually’ for the BBC and ‘The Great British Asian Invasion’ for Channel 4. Recent documentaries produced by him include a profile of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, a programme exploring Muslim humour and a forthcoming programme on John Lennon.
Maniza Naqvi
Born in Lahore, Pakistan, Maniza Naqvi now lives in Washington DC and works at the World Bank. Her work is in the areas of peace, poverty alleviation, and post conflict reconstruction. Naqvi is the author of four novels, Mass Transit (1998), On Air (2000), Stay with Me (2004), and A Matter of Detail (2008). Her short stories, poems, and essays have been published in various anthologies, including Shattering the Stereotypes (2005) and Neither Night nor Day (2007). Her recent publication is a book of short stories titled Sarajevo Saturdays.
Sehba Sarwar
Sehba Sarwar grew up in Karachi and has been living in Houston for the last ten years. She has worked as Editor, Star, for a year. Sarwar is Co-founder and Director of Voices Breaking Boundaries, a non-profit multi-media arts organization. She has also published her poetry, is a radio producer, and teaches writing workshops.
Sunil Sethi
Sunil Sethi presents the weekly literary show ‘Just Brooks’ on NDTV, India’s leading TV channel, and is a commentor on arts and culture. He was a founding member of the news magazine India Today and has been a columnist for The Times of India, Indian Express and, now the financial daily Business Standard. He has scripted and presented documentaries and programmes for the BBC and Channel 4. He was awarded the Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University and has been a Japan Foundation Fellow in Tokyo. His has also written books on architecture and design.
Durdana Soomro
Durdana Soomro is the author of Karachi: Pleasure Gardens of a Raj City (2007) and co-author of Bengal Raag. Born in Dhaka, she spent many years in Amman, Riyadh, Istanbul, and London. Her peripatetic life has led to an interest in languages. She studied Arabic at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and also speaks French. She has translated the work of prominent Pakistani writers from Urdu to English, including A Bad Woman’s Story by Kishwar Naheed (2009). Some of her translated works are included in the anthology Fault Lines (2008).
Zara Mumtaz
Zara Mumtaz has been a senior teacher of pre-primary classes, having written books in Urdu for children like Songs and Sounds of ABC, Number Songs in English, and Alif Bay Pay, Geet aur Awazain. She is very popular among children because of her unique style. She has been successfully using these poems in the classroom environment at pre-level for several years. Her books and cassettes/CDs have been of great interest among children over the years.
Anita Ghulam Ali
Anita Ghulam Ali is currently the Chief Executive of the Sindh Education Foundation which is working on a number of programmes aimed at creating public-private and public-community partnerships in order to improve the conditions of government schools. She has also rendered her valuable services in the political arena of Pakistan, serving as the Education Minister for a long period of two and a half years. Later on she became the Advisor on Education to the Governor.
Victoria Schofield
Victoria Schofield has written several articles in The Spectator and her first book was Bhutto: Trial and Execution. Since then, she has remained dedicated to understanding more about South Asian politics, both as a historian and journalist, and has travelled widely in the region. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 provided the inspiration for another book, Every Rock, Every Hill: The Plain Tale of the North-West Frontier and Afghanistan. She has also written extensively about the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir in articles and books, Kashmir in the Crossfire (1996) and Kashmir in Conflict (2000 and 2002).
Asif Noorani
Asif Noorani is a Pakistani newspaper and television writer and works with the Dawn Group of Newspapers as a consultant. A prolific writer, he contributes to leading Pakistani, and occasionally Indian publications, articles on art, literature and music. He reviews books and music recordings and is particularly known for his humorous writings and travelogues. With Kuldip Nayar, he has co-authored the book Tales of Two Cities. His second book on the flamboyant Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi, has recently been published.
