Ananke's Women in Literature Festival 2021 Edition - Gender Voices

# W LF20 21

An u pam a Jain

Anupama Jain is the author of When Padma Bani
Paula, listed as 'One of the 5 best books of 2018 -
Fiction' by readwriteinspire.com. It is a breezy novel
about second chances of life and the importance of
staying true to one's roots. She also wrote Masala
Mix: Potpourri Of Shorts, a short story collection on
myriad manifestations of love.
She is also the co-author of 9 anthologies across
genres, one of which is an LIMCA record holder as
India?s first Composite Novel. Anupama is the
Founder & Admin, SeniorSchoolMoms which won the
Orange Flower Award 2021, For Best Facebook
Groups. She is also the Head (Content, Collaborations,
Marketing), at Incredible Women of India
Anupama has won multiple major awards for her writing. The Orange Flower Awards for
humour, @momspresso awards for fiction, and parental blogging. She was listed as one of
the 10 Indian women bloggers, a feminist must follow, by Women's Web. She blogs at
akkaacerbic.wordpress.com. Anupama writes an award-winning satirical series at
readomania.com, AJ Wants to Know, about the quirky world around. Anupama?s Author
Central Page - https://www.amazon.in/dp/B088DFQ74L/

Ar pit a Das

Arpita Das is the Founder-Publisher of the award-winning
New Delhi-based independent publishing house, Yoda
Press, and an Executive Board Member of PublisHer
(womeninpublishing.org). Having taught as Visiting
Faculty on the MA in Publishing and Creative Writing
programmes at Ambedkar University and Ashoka
University, she also runs the Yoda Press Workshops
Series for Authors and Editors. She writes frequently for
periodicals and platforms on book culture, gender,
popular culture and bibliotherapy.

SPOTLIGHT

Ar u n dh at h i Su br am an iam

Described as "one of the finest poets writing in India
today" (The Hindu, 2010) Arundhathi Subramaniam is the
award-winning author of twelve books of poetry and
prose. Widely translated and anthologised, her most
recent volume of poems, Love Without a Story (published
in 2019 by Westland Amazon in India, and just out
internationally with Bloodaxe Books), has been
described as 'a breathtaking and heartwarming book'
(Poetry Book Society Bulletin) and as a book by 'a unique
poet of our times... in a league all by herself ' (Indian
Literature).

Her previous book, When God is a Traveller was the
Season Choice of the Poetry Book Society, shortlisted for
the T.S. Eliot Prize. Arundhathi is the recipient of various
awards and fellowships, including the inaugural
Khushwant Singh Prize, the Raza Award for Poetry, the
Zee Women's Award for Literature, the Il Ceppo Prize in
Italy, the Zee Indian Women Award for Literature, the Mystic Kalinga award, among others.

She has written extensively on culture and spirituality, and has worked over the years as
poetry editor, cultural curator and critic. She has been Editor of the India domain of the
Poetry International Web, a site that has grown over the years into a significant online
archive of contemporary Indian poetry. She has also written extensively on literature and
dance for The Times of India, The Indian Express, The Hindu, and various mainstream
newspapers and journals. Additionally, she has been curator of dance, as also an inter-arts
forum at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai for several years.

As prose writer, her books include the bestselling biography of a contemporary
mystic,Sadhguru: More Than a LifeandThe Book of Buddha.As editor, her most recent book is
the Penguin anthology of Bhakti poetry,Eating God. More details
at h t t p s:/ / ar u n d h at h isu b r am an iam .w eb s.com /

Aw ais Kh an

Awais Khan is a graduate of the University of Western

Ontario and Durham University. He has studied Creative

Writing at the prestigious Faber Academy in London. He is

the author of the critically acclaimed bestseller, In the

Company of Strangers, published by Simon & Schuster, The

Book Guild and Isis Audio. He has recently signed a 2 book

deal with Orenda Books UK. He has given lectures on

creative writing at Durham University, American University

in Dubai, Canadian University in Dubai, United States

Educational Foundation of Pakistan, Kinnaird College,

Hajver y Un iver sit y et c.

He regularly appears in the media to talk about writing and

publishing. He is represented by Annette Crossland at A for

Authors Agency Ltd London.

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Aish a Ham id

Aisha Hamid is a feminist writer and poet based
in Lahore, Pakistan. She graduated from the
University of Warwick with a MA in Gender and
International Development and is a
Commonwealth Scholar. Her academic and
creative writing both revolve around Pakistani
women?s agency and the multiple meanings it
comes to hold for them. As a woman living and
writing in a deeply patriarchal space, she regards
her writing as activism. She was among six writers
shortlisted for the Zeenat Haroon Rashid Writing
Prize for Women, 2019. She was also among eight
writers selected for the residential LUMS Young
Writers Workshop, 2019. She has been published
by Buchleser Books and Rare Swan Press. Her poetry is forthcoming inThe Aleph
Review(2021).

Ayesh a Raees

Ayesha Raees identifies herself as a hybrid
creating hybrid poetry through hybrid forms.
Raees currently serves as an Assistant Poetry
Editor at AAWW's The Margins and has received
fellowships from Asian American Writers'
Workshop, Brooklyn Poets, and Kundiman.
Raees's first book of poetry, "Coining The Wishing
Tower " won the Broken River Prize hosted by
Platypus Press and judged by Kaveh Akbar, and
will be forthcoming in March 2022. Akbar
describes her book as: ?everything I hope to find
when I read a book of poetry? fearless reckoning
with unprecedented experience spoken in a
singular, deeply and importantly strange lyric
voice.? Raees's Video Poem "The Memoir.... "was the winner of the Deanna Tulley
Multimedia Contest hosted by SlipperyElm at the University of Findlay and has
beenselected for national and international film festivals including the Midwest Video
Poetry Fest & 9th International Video Poetry Festival in Athens, Greece.

From Lahore, Pakistan, Raees is a graduate of Bennington College, and currently splits her
time between New York City and Lahore.

SPOTLIGHT

Aysh a Baqir

Aysha grew up in Pakistan. Her time in Mount Holyoke
College sparked a passion for economic development. In
1998 she founded a pioneering not for profit economic
development organization, Kaarvan Crafts Foundation,
with a mission to alleviate poverty by providing business
and marketing training to girls and women in
low-income communities. Her novel Beyond the Fields
was published in January 2019 and shortlisted
forbest-Debut English at the 9th UBL Literary Awards.
She was invited to launch her book at the Lahore and
Karachi Literary Festivals and was featured in the
Singapore Writers Festival (2019) and Money FM Career
360 show in Singapore. Her interviews, book reviews,
articles and short stories have appeared in
Countercurrents, Borderless, Expat Living, The Herald,
Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly, the Kitaab, The
Tempest, and Singapore Writer ?s Group Forum. She is an
Ashoka Fellow.

w w w.aysh ab aq ir .co m

Baela Raza Jam il

Baela Raza Jam il, CEO of

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) centre for

education and consciousness is a public policy

specialist, innovator and an activist. She

leads the Annual Status of Education Report

(ASER) Pakistan, a citizens? accountability

learning initiative, and is the founder of the

Children?s & Teachers Literature Festivals a

nationwide social movement on learning for

meaning and inclusion. Since March 2020,

Baela has been engaged with COVID19

response at the institutional, policy,

provincial, national and global levels

including collaboration with the Government

on Ed Tech solutions ?TeleSchool?. A former Technical Adviser to the Federal Ministry of

Education, she is associated with several initiatives on Early Years, Girls?second chance

programs and life skills nationally and globally.She is on the board of the Punjab Social

Protection Authority (PSPA); Member Advisory Committee on Education and National

Steering Committee ECD Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives; the

Platform for Girls Education, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) UK; Commissioner

at the Education Commission and Education Workforce Initiative (EWI); Member Advisory

Board Global BusinessCoalition for Education (GBC Ed); Chairperson SDG 4.2.1 Task force

Global Alliance to Monitor LearningUNESCO Institute of Statistics(UIS);and founding

Member People?s Action for Learning Network (PAL Network). She is the managing trustee

of a school for the most disadvantaged with an IB-PYP program, the Sanjan Nagar Public

Education Trust (SNPET), and Board Member ILM Association, an ed-tech industry alliance

in Pakistan.

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Ayesh a Kidw ai

Ayesha Kidwai is Professor at the Centre for Linguistics at Jawaharlal Nehru
University. New Delhi. A recipient of the Infosys Prize 2013 in Humanities,
Kidwai works both in theoretical linguistics and as an active translator, and
a women's rights activist. As a translator she has published two English translations of
Anis Kidwai's Urdu memoirs? In Freedom's Shade (Penguin 2011), and The Dust of the
Caravan (Zubaan and New Text, 2020). In Freedom's Shade was shortlisted for the
Economist Crossword Book Award in 2012, and has received recognition and accolades
across the world.

Bianca Her nandez

Social media mage by day, and nerd of many fandoms by night,
Bianca Hernandez is a lady of many interests and is well known for
Drunk Austen, Book Hoarding and podcasts. She works
professionally in social media managing brand marketing and
audience engagement and fights for a more inclusive Jane Austen
community. Twitter: @bookhoarding

Bish an Sam addar

Bishan Samaddar is an editor at Seagull Books, India, and an
instructor at the Seagull School of Publishing.

Ch r ist in a Boyd

Christina Boyd wears many hats as she is a
great reader, an editor under her own
banner, The Quill Ink, LLC, a dedicated
reviewer, and an artist. Since 2013, Christina
has worked with over thirty authors,
published five anthologies, and edited
numerous contemporary and historical
romance, chicklit, and Jane Austen-inspired
novels. As of 2021, she has edited forty-five
books in seven years and is a life member of
Jane Austen Society of North America. Twitter,
Instagram @xtnaboyd

SPOTLIGHT

Deept i Menon

Deepti Menon has always loved the written word. She
began to write at the age of ten and was lucky enough to
have travelled around the country as an Army kid. Her
experiences during those years helped hone her interest
and her flair for writing. Her first book, 'Arms and the
Woman', published in 2002, takes a light-hearted look at
the life of an Army wife. 2013 and 2014 were lucky for her,
as many of her short stories were chosen for myriad
anthologies. She also has a book of poems, titled
'Deeparadhana of Poems', lovingly compiled by her
mother, herself a talented writer and ?Shadow in the
Mirror ?, a psychological thriller published by Readomania
in 2016. Her latest offerings are an eBook of thriller short
stories, titled ?Where Shadows Follow ? Tales that Twist
and Turn?and ?Tales from the Panchatantra?, a set of four
eBooks, all by Readomania. She is currently working on
stories based on ten Shakespearean plays, which she
hopes will pique the curiosity of young readers.

Writing has been an endless journey with its twists and turns, often leading Deepti on to
the myriad mysteries of life, love and relationships. The thrill of seeing her name in print
has only intensified over the years.She believes that Mark Twain had the right idea when
he said, ?The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference
between lightning and a lightning bug.?There has never been a dull moment, never time
to regret, according to her, as life is truly worth living.

Dian a J. Fox

Diana J. Fox is a feminist decolonial anthropologist,
scholar-activist, and documentary film producer whose
ethnographic field work is predicated on the value of
partnership with social movement actors. Her work in
places as diverse as Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Nepal,
Sri Lanka, and Japan seeks to push boundaries and
transgress conventional divides toward liberatory
realities across genders, sexualities, class, caste, and
sociocultural constructions of race, to build radically
inclusive collaborations and sustainable cultures and
ecologies.

Diana serves on a number of boards and committees

including the Sexualities Working Group of the

Caribbean Studies Association (CSA), the international advisory board of the Fondes

Amandes Community Reforestation Project (FACRP) in Trinidad and Tobago, is the Founder

and Editor of the open access, online Journal of International Women?s Studies and the

co-chair of the Racial Justice Committee at her Synagogue, Temple Beth-El in Providence, RI

where she lives.She is the recipient of four Fulbright awards and many other grants, has

published a number of books and articles and is a frequent speaker at conferences and

o t h er venues. The JIWS Facebook page

is:h t t p s:/ / w w w.f aceb ook.com / gr ou p s/ 447055225467504

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Dr . Nuk hbah Langah

Dr. Nukhbah Taj Langahh has served as an
Associate Professor of English at Forman
Christian College University since 2009. She
Chaired the department of English from
2013-16 and served as the Dean of
Humanities from 2016-20 at Forman. She did
her post-doc from Le Centre d'Études de l'Inde
et de l'Asie du Sud, Paris (2016-17) and was a
Charles Wallace Fellow (2018) in the School of
Oriental and African Studies, London. Her
research interests include resistance
literature from South Asia, peripheral literary
voices from Pakistan, South Asian cinema,
post-911 literature, regional languages and
discourses from Pakistan and translation
theory and praxis. She is also a freelance
translator, political activist and a feminist. Her academic publications include a
monograph,Poetry as Resistance: Islam and Ethnicity in Postcolonial Pakistan(Routledge,
2011); an edited volume, Literary and non-literary Responses towards 9/11: South Asia and
Beyond(Routledge, 2011) and a number of research papers based on Siraiki identity,
marginalization of women, poetic resistance. She has also published poetry translations
with Poetry Translation Center, London. She is currently a Project Partner Lead from
Forman Christian College University in Global Challenges Research Fund (GRCF) for a pilot
(ADVANCING FEMALE LITERACY AND EMPOWERMENT IN PAKISTAN AND INDIA THROUGH
LIFE WRITING) with University of Sheffield (UK) and Academic partner. Her upcoming co-
edited work with Dr. Roshni Sengupta (Film, Media and Representation in Postcolonial South
Asia: Beyond Partition) deals withpost-Partition connections in South Asia through media
and cultural responses.

Faiqa M an sab

Faiqa Mansab is the author of This
House of Clay and Water, published by
Penguin India in 2017. The novel was
longlisted for the Ghetz Pharma Fiction
Prize and German Consulate Peace
Prize in 2018. It will be coming soon in
Turkish by LIBER PLUS and has been
optioned for screen. The Novel is also
getting a Pakistani edition next month
with Liberty Books. Faiqa has an MFA
with a Distinction in Fiction from
Kingston University London and an MA
in Gender, Sexuality and Culture from
Birkbeck University London.

SPOTLIGHT

Dina Benbrahim

Dina Benbrahim is an Arab
multidisciplinary creative who
uses a feminist lens to focus on
illuminating the power in human
beings to be transformative forces
in society. Her current research
investigates design for civic action
and social justice for marginalized
communities to collectively
reimagine equitable futures. Dina
has experience in design, art
direction, copywriting and
entrepreneurship in New York and Casablanca, with SYPartners New York, J. Walter
Thompson New York and Casablanca, and Shem?s Publicité. Her work has been featured in
national and international exhibitions and awarded multiple times. Dina received a
Bachelor in Business Administration and a Master ?s Degree in Marketing and
Communications in addition to participating in the Exchange Program in Arts and Social
Sciences at Simon Fraser University. She has completed her MFA in Design & Visual
Communications at University of Florida where she also taught design and was the 2020
recipient of the Calvin A. VanderWerf Award for Excellence in Teaching. She is now an
Assistant Professor at University at Buffalo, SUNY. She is motivated to activate greatness in
everyone she encounters.

Diyor a Sh adijan ova

Diyora Shadijanova is the First Person editor
atgal-demmagazine and the host of the Broccoli Book Club
podcast. Her work can be read in VICE, Refinery29, Bustle
and Cosmopolitan.

Far zan a Doct or

Farzana Doctor is the Toronto-based author of four
novels: Stealing Nasreen, Six Metres of Pavement, All
Inclusive, and Seven. Seven has been chosen for 2020
Best Book lists including: Indigo/Chapters, Apple Books,
Amnesty International, CBC Books and more. Her
poetry collection,You Still Look The Same, will be released
in fall 2022.Farzana is also the Maasi behind Dear
Maasi, a new sex and relationships column for FGM/C
survivors. She is alsoan activist, part-time
psychotherapist and amateur tarot card
r ead er .lin kt r .ee/ f ar zan ad o ct o r

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Fat im a Ijaz

Fatima Ijaz, finds reality to be mysterious and
indulges in fathoming it by drawing tarot
cards in surrealistic association. She is
currently teaching English and Speech
Communication at IBA, Karachi. She is an
English graduate from Hartwick College, N.Y
and York University, TO. She also holds a
Master in English Linguistics from Eastern
Michigan University. She won first prize at the
Mclaughlin Poetry Contest in Toronto, 2007.
Her work was featured in a poetry and art
collaboration for #NomeansNo at the Music
Mela, Islamabad'18 and at Art Baithak, KU in
March'19. Her work has been published in
The Write Launch, Rigorous, Abramelin, Zau,
Whirlwind, Praxis and several others. She
also writes regularly for NayaDaur Media and is currently collaborating with famed fashion
designer Sadaf Malaterre on a cross-collaborative art/poetry project.

Gow r i Vijayk u m ar

Gowri Vijayakumar is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Women's,
Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University. Her research and
teaching uses feminist, queer and transnational perspectives to
illuminate the trajectories of social movements, the everyday life of the
state, and the political economy of globalization. Her book At Risk: Indian
Sexual Politics and the Global AIDS Crisis, forthcoming with Stanford
University Press, uses over 150 in-depth interviews and ethnographic
research across India and Kenya to study the politics of the AIDS crisis.
She regularly collaborates with the Solidarity Foundation in Bangalore.
Most recently, she is translating and editing the autobiography of Akkai
Padmashali, a transgender human rights activist based in Bangalore and founder of the NGO
Ondede.

Ilon a Yu su f

Ilona is a poet and an artist who has freelanced for
Nukta and ArtNow, as well as written essays on
Pakistani poetry in English. Her poems have been
published once in a book form and in literary journals in
Pakistan and abroad. She worked as an editor for The
Alhamra Literary Review and guest-edited a special
issue of Pakistani poetry in English for the Canadian
poetry magazine Vallum. As a printmaker, she integrates word and image in form of
artists?books. Lighting design and conversation piece furniture are her bread and butter.
She is also the associate editor of the Aleph Review.?

?

SPOTLIGHT

Jen n y Bh at t

Jenny Bhatt is a writer, literary translator, and
book critic. She teaches fiction at Writing
Workshops Dallas. She's also the host of the Desi
Bookspodcast. Her debut story collection, Each of
Us Killers, was out in September 2020 and
critically well-received. Her debut literary
translation, Ratno Dholi: The Best Stories of
Dhumketu, was out in October 2020 and also
critically well-received. Find her at
jen n yb h at t w r it er .com .

Jin a M oor e

Jina Moore is the editor in chief of Guernica
magazine, a global journal of arts and politics. She
is a member of the board that publishesAdi
magazine and of the advisory board of
Off/Assignment. She spent 15 years as a foreign
correspondent, half of them freelance, based in
East Africa and working from more than 30
countries around the world. She was the inaugural
Global Women's Rights reporter and senior
foreign correspondent for BuzzFeed News, helping
to establish the news brand through its gender
coverage, and the East Africa Bureau Chief at The
New York Times. Her work has also appeared in/at
The New Yorker, the Atlantic, the Boston Review, the Columbia Journalism Review, the
Christian Science Monitor, PRI's The World, Best American Science Writing (2009), Best
American Travel Writing (2021), and other places.

Kar en Osm an

Karen Osman is an award-winning writer and best-selling
author. Following her win at the Emirates Airline Festival
of Literature Montegrappa Novel Writing Award 2016 with
her crime-thriller novel, The Good Mother, renowned
literary agent,Luigi Bonomi of LBA Books, secured a
three-book deal with UK-based publishing house Head of
Zeus.

Since then, The Good Mother, which was published in
October 2017 and her second novel, The
Home(September 2018), were both number one
bestsellers. Her third book, A Perfect Lie, was published in
August 2019 and she is currently working on her fourth
novel. In July 2020, Karen launched her signature online
writing course, Kick Start Your Book With Karen, designed
for budding authors to help write their books.

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Kir t h i Jayak u m ar

Kirthi Jayakumar is a lawyer, feminist researcher, and
WPS practitioner. She founded and runs The Gender
Security Project, which works on the WPS Agenda and
Feminist Foreign Policy through research, reportage,
and documentation. She obtained her MA in Peace and
Conflict Studies at CTPSR, Coventry University, and
previously at UPEACE, Costa Rica. She is a member of
the Working Group for the Every Woman Treaty and
part of the Advisory Working Group for the Beijing+25
process.

Laaleen Su k h er a

Laaleen is an eclectic writer, content specialist
and digital media professional. She consults
in international communications and PR in
the UK, MENA and South Asia. Laaleen has
appeared on TEDx, the BBC, British Council
Arts and The Times, while her recent essays
have been published in literary journals in the
United States. She has appeared as a speaker
and panellist in Austin, Bangalore, Belo
Horizonte, Dubai, Galle, Islamabad, Lahore,
London, Minneapolis, Sharjah, Sydney and
Washington, DC. An alumna of Clark
University, Laaleen's views are often quoted
in the press including The Atlantic, The Daily
Beast, The Economist, Elle, Glamour and
Vanity Fair. Austenistan, her anthology of
commercial fiction, was inspired by Jane Austen and published by Bloomsbury. Set among
Lahore wedding parties, Karachi salons, Islamabad ballrooms and Surrey estates, it was a
regional bestseller and is in its second edition. She is represented by WME.

Lak sh an a Palat

An aspiring author, journalist and history graduate, Lakshana Palat
has written stories for three anthologies 'When They Spoke',
'Mocktales' and 'Readomania's Book Of Romance'. In 2018, she
published her first book, 'The Final Word'.?

SPOTLIGHT

Leonora M iano

Born in Douala (Cameroon) in 1973, Léonora Miano has
established herself as a major voice of French speaking
literature. A novelist, playwright and essayist, she is the
author of some twenty books. Her works explores
sub-Saharan and diasporic experiences as expressions of
the universal human condition.Léonora Miano was
awarded the Prix Goncourt des lycéens in 2006 for her
novelContours du jour qui vient(Plon), the Prix Fémina and
the Grand prix du roman métis in 2013 for La saison de
l?ombre (Grasset).In 2020, the University of Lorraine, in
collaboration with the University of the Greater Region,
which brings together 6 European academic institutions,
created the "Frontières Léonora Miano" literary prize, in
recognition of the author ?s writings and commitments.

Léonora Miano curates the Quilombola series at Seagull
Books, an independent publisher based in Calcutta, India.
She is the founder of The Quilombo Publishing, located in
Lomé (Togo) where she lives.

Photos credits: Emerson Lawson

M ah n az Reh m an

Mahanaz Rehman has been working as Resident
Director at Aurat Foundation?s regional office based at
Karachi since 2010. She is a known practitioner on
women rights and socio political issues having a
journalistic background which adds to her strengths in
terms of networking, liaison and communication with
media, civil society, political parties and
parliamentarians. She has been serving as development
practitioner and has acquired versatile skills in terms of
trainings on human right advocacy, developing research
papers and technical backstopping on programme
development aspects. Her experiential background
while working with diverse institutions ranging from
media, Agah Khan University and Church World Service
significantly contributed to attain the desired set of skills and competencies to serve her
current leadership role as resident director at AF.

Mahnaz has extensive international exposure in terms of attending
internationalconferences, trainings and a delegation meeting held around international
human rights charters and conventions and human right advocacy and thus has visited
number of countries including Bangkok, Brussels, New York, Hague, Afghanistan, Sri lanka
and Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonberg, USA. She attained high level honors
during her academic and professional life in terms of being the First female President of
the employees union of a newspaper and senior joint secretary of KUJ(Karachi union of
journalists) for two terms in 1983-84 and also has the honor of being awarded the
Friendship Medal by the Prime Minister of People?s Republic of China (Li Peng) in 1991 for
promoting friendship of two countries through her writings.She got life time achievement
award in 2020 by Sindh Commission on Status of Women of Government of Sindh.

# W LF20 21

M eh r F Hu sain

Mehr F Husain is a British-Pakistani journalist.
Author of 'Pakistan: A Fashionable History', she
has worked in different roles in the Pakistani
media industry; as a Features Editor at The Friday
Times (TFT), an Assistant Editor at Good Times
(GT) magazine and as a columnist for India's Mail
Today where her column 'The Lahore Log' also
appeared in The Daily Mail/MailOnline. Mehr 's
commentary has appeared in The Economist's
1843, The Times of London, The Diplomat, India's
Mail Today, The Daily Mail/MailOnline, Libas, The
Friday Times, Herald, Pakistan Today, The News,
The Nation and Pakistan Link. She was also the
Editor for 'Multan: A Spiritual Legacy' which was
presented to HM Queen Elizabeth in 2013. In
2018 she founded ZUKA, a social enterprise and set up ZUKA BOOKS in 2020.Mehr holds a
MSc. in Asian Politics from SOAS, University of London and a BSc. in Politics with Business
Management (Hons.) from Queen Mary, University of London. She was also accepted into
an MPhil in South Asian Studies at St. Edmunds College, Cambridge.

M in a M alik -Hu ssain

Mina Malik-Hussain is a writer and poet based in Lahore.
Her literary work has appeared in Vallum, The Aleph
Review and Scroll amongst other literary publications and
she has had bylines in Architectural Digest, The News and
The Nation, where she wrote a popular column for five
years. Mina is currently enrolled in an MSt. in Creative
Writing at Oxford University, and is the host of The Coffee
Table, a talk show on national television.

Photo credits: Nashmia Haroon at Nashmia Haroon
Ph o t o gr ap h y.

M ish a Ali Far h an a

Misha Ali Farhana,is a grudging cartoonist and illustrator and
also the Founding mother and Editor in chief of Behenchara
Magazine. Pakistans first online e-zine that revolved purely
around feminist themes.

SPOTLIGHT

M eh vash Am in

Mehvash Amin is an English language poet based in
Lahore. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize
for her poem entitled ?Karachi?. Her poems have been
published in various literary journals such asVallum,New
International Poetics(Canada),Sugar Mule(USA),One Hand
Clapping(UK),The Missing Slate,and books such asA
Khanna?s Capitals(Bloomsbury) andThe Stained Glass
Window(Liberty Books), amongst others. Mehvash has a
publishing house, Broken Leg Publications, and is
publisher and editor-in-chief ofThe Aleph Review,a yearly
anthology of creative writing and art. She has also
compered sessions for the Islamabad Literary Festival
andEShe Magazine(India), besides participating in the
Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore Literature Festivals.

M an dy San gh er a

Mandy Sanghera is an award winning philanthropist, a
community consultant and global campaigner. With over
threedecades of experience, Mandyis an expert in various
development related fields. She has been driving innovation,
building strategic partnerships, promoting advocacy and
programming in the areas of human rights, gender equality,
accountability and social justice globally. Mandyhas helped
hundredsof individuals and now reaches thousands through
social media and her generous amount of worldwide TV
appearances and public speaking engagements.

M in i Sh ivak u m ar M en on

Mini Shivakumar Menon is a writer and English language
trainer based in Kochi, Kerala, India. Mini?s short stories have
been part of anthologies, and she has written twice for the
prestigious annual catalogue of the Kolkata-based Seagull
Books. Mini has a running blog where she occasionally posts
prose and poetry. Her writing has its roots in her own
experiences, as well as those of the others she has met and
interacted with in the course of her life. Currently, she is
attempting to write a full length novel. Mini has also worked as
freelance journalist for leading publications in the UAE,

Manisha Chaudhry # W LF20 21

Manisha Chaudhry has many years of experience as a publishing
professional and in the social development sector. She began her
professional career in India's first feminist publishing house 'Kali
for Women' in 1986 and has been a consultant to a range of
organizations in the development sector and the UN. An editor
and translator fluent in Hindi and English, her work has been
published by Kali for Women, Oxford University Press, Zubaan
Books, Yatra Books, Niyogi Books, Pratham Books and Permanent
Black. Her translationA Street in Srinagarof the Hindi novelAilan
Gali Zinda Haiby Chandrakanta was shortlisted for the DSC Prize
for Literature in 2012. Her most recent translationThe Chipko Movement:A People?s Historyof
Shekhar Pathak?sHari Bhari Ummeedhas been well received. Manisha was Editorial Head, at
Pratham Books, a not for profit multilingual children's publisher since its inception until
2017. She is a severally published author of children?s books and has translated numerous
o t h er s.

As one of the founder trustees of Bookaroo Children's Literature Festival, she spearheaded
the initiative of Bookaroo in the City. The Children?s Outreach of the Jaipur Literature
Festival was started under her guidance. She has been Adviser to the Kahani Festival and
JUMPSTART, a children?s content congress run by the German Book Office. She is an invited
member to the Publishing Committee of FICCI. She has been in the forefront of many new
initiatives to democratize the joy of reading and books and improve equity in education.
She works as an independent consultant for publishing and translation initiatives and is
the co-founder of Manan Books.

M on i M oh sin

Moni Mohsin was born and raised in Lahore,
Pakistan. She started her writing career at The
Friday Times, Pakistan?s first independent weekly,
where she served as the Features Editor. She is
now a freelance journalist and author of three
novels, the prize winning The End of Innocence,
Tender Hooks and The Impeccable Integrity of
Ruby R. Her best selling collection of satirical
columns, The Dairy of a Social Butterfly and The
Return of the Butterfly, are based on her long
running column for The Friday Times.

Naim a Rash id

Naima Rashid is a writer, poet, and translator. Her
first book was "Defiance of the Rose" (Oxford
University Press, 2019). Her writings have appeared
in Asymptote, The Scores, Lucy Writers Platform,
Visual Verse, among others. She was long-listed for
the National Poetry Competition 2019. Her
forthcoming works include a translation of the Urdu
novel "NaulakhiKothi" by Ali Akbar Natiq (Penguin
Random House India 2022), and her own fiction and
poetry. She is presently based in the UK. Website:
w w w.n aim ar ash id .com

SPOTLIGHT

Nat h alie Et oke

Nathalie Etoke is Associate Professor of Francophone and
Africana Studies at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Her
articles have appeared in Research in African Literatures,
French Politics and Culture, Nouvelles Études Francophones,
Présence Francophone, the International Journal of
Francophone Studies ,and the Journal of French and
Francophone Philosophy. She is the authorof L'Écriture du
corps féminin dans la littérature de l'Afrique francophone au
sud du Saharaand ofMelancholia Africana l'indispensable
dépassement de la condition noire, which won the 2012
Frantz Fanon Prize from the Caribbean Philosophical
Association. In 2011, she directedAfro Diasporic French
Identities, a documentary on race, identity and citizenship
in contemporary France.?? ?

Nida Usm an Ch au dh ar y

Nida Usman Chaudhary is one of the founding members of
Authors Alliance Pakistan. She is an alumni of the
prestigious The Writing Institute in Lahore. Her short story,
'Coming of Age' was published in 'The Stained-Glass
Window', an anthology on stories of the pandemic from
Pakistan, published by Liberty Books. She is working for the
recognition of writing as an industry in Pakistan for which
she curated the 'Rethinking Writing as an Industry' series
with Olomopolo in 2019. She believes in protecting and
promoting the work of Pakistani authors and its nascent
writing industry and has curated several sessions on
copyrights, piracy and other legal aspects of publishing
under Lahore Education and Research Network in
collaboration with The Writing Institute and Pakistan Lady Bloggers.

# W LF20 21

Nighat Dad

Nighat Dad is the Executive Director of the Digital
Rights Foundation and a member of the
Facebook oversight board. She's working on
digital rights discourse in Pakistan along with
cyber harassment, harassment, data protection,
and free speech online. She identifies as a
feminist and works to empower women through
the use of ICTs.

Nighat is the recipient of the prestigious Human
Rights Tulip Award. She is also a TED Fellow and a
TIME's Next Generation Leader.

Nw a Rizvi

A writer and translator with a penchant for graphic art
and photography, Nwa Rizvi's short stories have been
featured in The Aleph Review, The Equator Line
magazine, and the anthology The Banyan and Her Roots.

A gold medalist with a B.A (Hons) in Liberal Arts from
Beaconhouse National University, Lahore (BNU), and a
certified teacher trainer from the University of
Texas-Austin, she teaches English Literature at the
Lahore College of Arts and Sciences (LACAS). She has
been a Research and Teaching Assistant at the Lahore
University of Management Sciences (LUMS), and
Beaconhouse National University.

She is also an editor and content creator for 'Somewhere In Pakistan' ? an artist collective,
supporting and curating art from all across the country. Red Drapes and Other Storiesis
her first book.

SPOTLIGHT

Ph yllis Ch esler

Phyllis Chesler is an American writer,psychotherapist,

andprofessor em er it aof p sych ologyan d w om en's

studiesat theCollege of Staten Island(CUNY). She is

known as afeministpsychologist, and is the author of

19 books, including the best-sellerWomen and

Madness(1972),With Child: A Story of Motherhood(1979)

andAn American Bride in Kabul: A Memoir (2013).

Chesler has written on topics such as gender,mental

illness, divorce andchild

custody,surrogacy,second-wave feminism,violence

against women and more. Her most recent work

Requiem for a Serial Killer was published in November

2020.

Piyu sh a Vir

A CELTA-certified English Language and Creative Writing
Coach, Piyusha Vir quit her high-profile hotel sales career
and turned to writing in 2015.Her writings on various
platforms like Sheroes, LBB Delhi,
Readomania,MomspressoandWomensWeb have won her
many accolades and appreciation.

She has authored three books - Just Another Day-a
collection of thriller short stories, and Dashavatar-Stories of
Lord Vishnu, both published by Readomania Publishing,
Dasavatara (for children) published by Westland Publishing,
under their children's imprint, Red Panda.

# W LF20 21

Pu r va Gr over

Purva Grover is an author, journalist, poetess, playwright, and
stage director. She is the founder-editor of The Indian Trumpet, a
quarterly digital magazine for Indian expats, and works as the
assistant editor with a UAE national daily, and editor, for a
magazine for young adults. She is backed with a post-graduate
degree in mass communication and literature. She resides in
Dubai, UAE. She made her debut as an author with The Trees Told
Me So. Born & brought up in colourful-chaotic India, she writes in
English.

Rabban ia Sh ir jeel

Rabbania Shirjeel is a Lahore based practicing

visual Artist. She has recently completed her

master ?s in Art and Design from

Beaconhouse Nat io n al Un iver sit y.

Being the only Pakistani to have an honors

degree in Photography, the idea of limiting to

a single medium or working with specific

interests is unfamiliar to her.

Rabbania constantly questions the

possibilities around photography and the

way it is seen in Pakistan.

She also works as an oral historian collecting stories and compiling them for her archive
project. With that Rabbania is highly fascinated by history and Language especially Urdu.
Recently she has completed a translation for a British council zine.
Rabbania is also the founder of Tasweerghar.

SPOTLIGHT

Radh ik a M air a Tabr ez

Radhika Maira Tabrez is an award-winning writer, editor,
writing coach, freelance and a motivational speaker. Her
debut novel ?In The Light Of Darkness? won the
covetedMuse India ? Satish Verma Young Writer Award.
Her other books are The Emancipation Of Farzana Siddiqui,
Sankaarak, Defiant Dreams, When They Spoke, Mock, Stock
and Quarrel, and Better Parenting. She is thefirst Indianto
ever speak at a TEDx event in Bangladesh. She won the
Rising Stars India Award (2017), and 100 Most Inspiring
Writers by Indian Awaaz (2018). She was one of the
Program Mentors for Chevening Writers Series held in
Penang, Malaysia 2020. She is also the founder of Roots &
Wings ? a life skills enhancement program for children and adults.

Her home is now split between Delhi, Dhaka and Penang, where she has moved most
recently, in pursuit of a tranquil life away from the bustle of the big metropolis. She is
currently brewing her third book; which she plans to commit to paper soon, while sitting
on her balcony, overlooking the turquoise waters of Malacca Strait.

Rash in Ch ou dh r y

Rashin Choudhry isprogram development advisorof the
Fred Hollows Foundation inAustralia. She began working
with The Foundation in 2004.

In her current role, she is responsible for designing,
developing, monitoring and evaluating high quality eyecare
projects. She has also experience in developing
comprehensive eye care projects including diabetic
retinopathy, school screening and pediatric.

Prior to joining The Foundation, she worked at The
University of Sydney.

She has more than 17 years of experience in international
development and eye health issues.

Rashinis a graduate ofUniversity of Sydney, where she received her B.Sc. in Pharmacology.
She also holds Master Degree inPublic HealthfromUniversity of Sydney.

# W LF20 21

Rosem ar ie Hu dson

Rosemarie Hudson was born in Jamaica and grew up in
London.In 1998 she founded her first publishing
company BlackAmber. Its ethos was to publish unheard
voices in English and international languages, particularly
writers and writings from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.
Among the many authors she published to critical
acclaim during this period were Patricia Cumper, Alex
Wheatle, Cauvery Madhavan, Rachel Manley, Yvonne
Brewster and Gaston-Paul Effa. The company was later
acquired by Arcadia.
Rosemarie served on the board of the Book Trade Charity
(BTBS) and is a mentor on the Arts Council project,
Decibel.
In 2010, Rosemarie started HopeRoad whose mission has been to promote literary voices
from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, in exploring themes of identity, cultural stereotyping
and injustices.HopeRoad?s authors include Tahar Ben Jelloun, Kamala Markandaya,
Cauvery Madhavan, Pete Kalu, Ferdinand Dennis, Yan Ge, Max Lobe and Véronique Tadjo.

Saadia Gar dezi

Saadia Gardezi is a journalist and political cartoonist from
Pakistan. She is a Chancellor 's Scholar at Warwick
University. Her research is focused on western and
non-western political cartoons during the War on Terror
era, exploring postcolonialism and international relations.
She is the Co-Founder of Project Dastaan that records
oral histories of survivors from the Partition of India and
Pakistan and reconnects them to their ancestral homes
across the India-Pakistan-Bangladesh borders using new
technologies. She is a former Weidenfeld-Hoffman
Leadership Scholar at Oxford University and has worked with various news outlets since
2010 including The Nation,Arab NewsandIndependent Urdu.

SPOTLIGHT

Saba Kar im Kh an

Saba Karim Khan is an author, award-winning filmmaker and
educator, whose writing has appeared in The Guardian, The
Independent, Wasafiri, Huff Post, EN Fuego, Verso, DAWN,
Express Tribune, Think Progress. She has read Social
Anthropology at the University of Oxford and works at NYU
Abu Dhabi. Her debut novel ? Skyfall ? was recently published
by Bloomsbury. Her doc-film, Concrete Dreams: Some Roads
Lead Home is now on Amazon Prime Video. Before joining the
Academy, she worked as Country Marketing and Public Affairs
Head at Citigroup. Born in Karachi, she now lives in Abu Dhabi
with her husband and two daughters. Saba Karim Khan can
be contacted at sabak ar im k h an .com and via Twitter
@Sab aKar im .

Sabdezar Ir f an

Sabdezar Irfan is a Visual Communication Designer with an
equal love for illustration and literature. Based in Lahore,
she's currently working as a freelance illustrator alongside
working a corporate job hoping to fulfil her dream of telling
the infinite stories inside her in the finite space of life.

San a M u n ir

Sana Munir has two books of fiction to her name,
including Unfettered Wings: Extraordinary Stories of
Ordinary Women (2018). She has co-edited an anthology
of short fiction titled, The Stained-Glass Window: Stories
of the Pandemic from Pakistan (2020). Sana writes book
reviews for local newspapers and magazines.

# W LF20 21

Sar a Naveed

Sara Naveed is the author of four books; Undying Affinity,

Our Story Ends Here, All Of My Heart, and The World

Between Us. All of them have been published by Penguin

Random House India.

She has done her primary education from Ibn Sina English

High School, Sharjah and then matriculation from Convent

of Jesus and Mary. Sialkot. Later, she went on to complete

her Bachelors in business and got her Masters degree in

Banking and Finance from UMT, Lahore.

Being a writer has always been her dream. Having written
in many fan fiction forums, Sara's interest grew and her
writing skills improved. She earnestly hopes people
appreciate her writing? an asset she deeply covets.
Apart from writing fiction novels, she is working as a content head at a leading software
firm. Currently, she is living with her family in Lahore.

Sau r av Du t t

Saurav Dutt is a TIME magazine featured
Author and Political Analyst whose work and
commentary places a heavy emphasis on
gender equality and women's rights,
particularly domestic abuse and mental
health awareness. His debut novel 'The
Butterfly Room' collated the experienced of
over one hundred domestic abuse survivors
and his works have been featured and
launched at the House of Lords, WEF, IKWRO,
and alongside Booker Prize nominated
Authors. He has just released a memoir based on a case of domestic abuse that captured
international headlines. 'Fall in Light: A Mother 's Story' was co-written with the mother of
Meera Dalal, a woman from the United Kingdom who took her own life after suffering
from years of domestic abuse at the hands of an ex-boyfriend, her abuse led to a
protracted cycle of depression and mental wellness challenges that ultimately led her to
take her own life at the age of 25.

Saurav's works and commentary has been featured in GQ Magazine, CNN, Newsweek,
Huffington Post, and more.

SPOTLIGHT

Sh azaf Fat im a

Shazaf Fatima is the mother of three children and
author of two novels. She is currently working on her
third novel to even things out. She is exhausted.

Sh eela Reddy

Sheela Reddy has written extensively for leading Indian
newspapers and journals during her 35 years in journalism.
She is a former books editor of Outlook and her writing has
appeared in literary magazines and in several anthologies
and an edited volume of essays by Khushwant Singh
titledWhy I Supported the Emergency. Mr and Mrs Jinnah is her
first book.

Son iah Kam al

Soniah Kamal is an award winning novelist, essayist and
public speaker. Her most recent novel, Unmarriageable:
Pride & Prejudice in Pakistan,is a Financial Times Readers'
Best Book of 2019, a People's Magazine Pick, a 2019 'Books
All Georgians Should Read,' a 2020 Georgia Author of the
Year for Literary Fiction nominee, is shortlisted for the
2020 Townsend Award for Fiction, is a New York Public
Library, a NPR Code Switch 2019 Summer Read Pick and
more. Her debut novel, An Isolated Incident, was a finalist
for the Townsend Award for Fiction and the KLF French
Fiction Prize.Soniah's TEDx talk is about second chances
and 'We are the Ink', her address at a U.S. Citizenship Oath
Ceremony about transitions, and her keynote at the Jane
Austen Festival about feminism and global connections.
Soniah'swork has appeared in critically acclaimed anthologies and publications including
The New York Times, Catapult, VIDA, Buzzfeed and more.www.soniahkamal.com twitter &
instagram: @soniahkamal

# W LF20 21

Su n an din i Ban er jee

Sunandini Banerjee is Senior Editor and Graphic Designer at
Seagull Books. A digital collage artist as well as a translator
from Bengali to English, she also teaches editing and design at
the Seagull School of Publishing. She lives and works in
Calcu t t a.

Su t apa Basu

Sutapa Basu is a best-selling author. Her latest book,The
Curse of Nader Shahwon the Best Fiction Award by AutHer
Awards, 2020 instituted by JK Papers and The Times of
India. She is the 2016 First Prize winner of The Times of
India?s Write India Campaign for Amish Tripathi while her
debut, a psychological thriller,Dangle was nominated for the
Anupam Kher Award for Debut Novels in 2017.
She is well-known for her best-selling historical
fiction,Padmavati, The Queen Tells Her Own Story(2017, pub
Readomania). Her second historical fiction initiated the
Invader Series with The Legend of Genghis Khan (2018, pub
Readomania) and continued withThe Curse of Nader Shah
(2019, pub Readomania). Recently, her two anthologies, Out Of The Blue, Stories with a Twist
and The Anatomy of Affection, Tales That Touch You (2020, pub Readomania) have been
released. A cozy-mystery adventure,The Cursed Inheritance(2021, pub Readomania) was
released in February this year.
A poet, author, publishing professional, her short stories have appeared in anthologies,
Crossed & Knotted, Defiant Dreams, When They Spoke and Write India Stories. Her poems have
been published in Kaafiyana and The Dawn Beyond Waste.
Sutapa also runs a live chat showBistro Buzz Conversations with Sutapa Basuthat hosts
unique people from across spheres and the world.Read her works on her website
storyfuntastika.com & Readomania.com.

SPOTLIGHT

Taiba Abbas

T. Biba Abbas is the founder of Àla Books and Authors
and the co-author of Àla's upcoming publication The
Night In Her Hair. Born in Pakistan, she grew up in Italy
and holds a Master 's degree in Comparative Literature
from SOAS, University of London. Her teaching career
spans almost a decade, having taught courses in
English literature, Film studies, Cultural studies, and
Italian language and literature at universities and
schools in Lahore and Islamabad.

Ur vash i Bu t alia

Urvashi Butalia is an Indian feminst writer, publisher
and activist. She is known for her work in the
women's movement of India, as well as for authoring
books like the path-breaking The Other Side of Silence:
Voices from and the Partition of India and Speaking
Peace: Women's Voices from Kashmir.

Along with Ritu Menon, she co-founded Kali For
Women, India's first exclusively feminist publishing
house, in 1984. In 2003, she founded Zubaan Books,
an imprint of Kali for Women. In 2011, Butalia and
Menon were jointly awarded the Padma Shri, India's
fourth highest civilian award, for their work in
Literature and Education.

Info courtesy: Wikipedia

Wajiha Hyder

Wajiha Hyder is a journalist, currently working as an
Assistant Editor at The News on Sunday (TNS), where she is
responsible for the magazine?s Books and Travel sections. As
a staff writer for the magazine, her writing mainly focuses
on culture, books and stories from life. Over the years, she
has built her career as a writer by writing features and
personal essays on various subjects. Her debut short story
appeared in the anthology, The Stained-Glass Window: Stories
of the Pandemic from Pakistan. She has previously worked as
a sub-editor and staff writer at Pakistan Today. Her work has
also appeared inThe Missing Slatewhere she worked as a Contributing Editor. Wajiha holds
an accounting qualification from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
(ACCA), UK, and has worked at Packages Ltd for four years. She currently resides in Lahore.

You sr a S Im r an # W LF20 21

Yousra S Imran is an English-Egyptian hybrid who works and lives
in West Yorkshire. She has been writing from the moment she
learned how to hold a pen and works full time in marketing and
events in the education sector.

Yousra grew up between the UK and the Middle East and has a BA
Hons in International Relations. She is passionate about women's
rights and gender justice. Yousra lives with her husband in
Bradford, Yorkshire.

Zah r a Ham eed

Zahra Hameed is a creative director, content creator, writer,
poetess, spoken word artist and positive living activist. A gold
medalist in mass communication with over twenty years of
experience in branding, advertising, concepts, strategy,
creative writing, editorial design, print journalism, television,
social media, fundraising, fashion magazines, interiors design,
packaging and events.

She is an advocate for body positivity, mental health and has
her own social media platform on instagram and facebook
called Dewanezahra.

Zar m in ae An sar i

Zarminae Ansari is an architect and Cultural Tourism
Consultant, who graduated with a Masters from Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. She has served as visiting or guest
lecturer at various leading educational institutions including
the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, University of
Karachi, BNUSVAD, and NCA Lahore. She has served on
interview panels for the Fulbright scholarship program, the MIT
Educational Council, and the United World Colleges, for which
she herself was a recipient and credits for her commitment to
service & activism.

As a writer, she has written for national and international publications, including "Mazaar,
Bazaar: Design and Visual Culture in Pakistan (OUP).

Zarminae has also been a producer in different media. She conceived and produced a
music video with one of the sub-continent's preeminent singers promoting tourism to the
area, to encourage poverty alleviation, peace and development. This project was
presented in conferences at MIT, and as a paper at NYU. Copies of the DVD were
distributed to the entire UN Assembly on the day of the elections for the Security Council
by ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon as a different image of Pakistan. She was
Pakistan producer for "Another Pakistan": a set of interviews of architects, writers, artists
and musicians by NPR's Christopher Lydon.

Having lived in 12 cities/ 8 different countries around the world, Zarminae has studied
different languages, including French and Russian. She brings her broad and varied
experiences to what she calls her "bucket list", passion project: Joy of Urdu, a bilingual
platform to promote Urdu language and literature.

SPOTLIGHT

Ju h i Javed Hu sain

Juhi Javed Husain is a well respected policy maker and lawyer
with a breadth of experience in highly challenging fields in
both in and out of government. A civil servant in the UK
government, she is currently working on new and exciting
digital and cyber harms regulation and breaking the ground
on finding innovative solutions to the most pressing
problems of our times. She advises ministers on policy
matters and has a fantastic network within Westminster and
Whitehall. Trained as a lawyer, she was called to the Bar of
England and Wales by the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn.
She is an advocate in the Punjab Courts and donates a large
part of her time to giving free legal advice. She has
collaborated with the World Bank as a legislative analyst and
worked in sustainability with organisations such as Lahore
Conservation Society, Justice UK, Environmental Law Foundation and more.

Eliza M ak h m ak h an ova

Eliza Makhmakhanova 19 years old and am originally
from Chechnya. She studies Media and
Communication in University of Wollongong Dubai.

Sh ah en da ElSayed

Shahenda ELSayed is an Egyptian and Dubai born and raised, I'm
interested in filmmaking, literature and uplifting powerful women.
I love learning more about feminist authors and filmmakers. I
study media and communications at university, specialising in
film production.

Fat im a Om ar

My name is Fatima Omar, and I am a Pakistani- born, living in
UAE for the last 8 years. I am currently studying at the University
of Wollongong, Dubai, majoring in Visual Communication
Design. My interests are in Graphic design, reading, and media. I
enjoy reading and recently I have been enjoying the book "The
Cruel Prince" by Holly black, as it is a young adult fantasy novel.

Par t n er s
& A l l i es

Informat ion collat ed &
writ t en by
Ch i amak a A di nnu

A nanke's O ffshore C orrespondent & Liaison
M anager

Names are in alphabetical order Websit e: https://alabooksandauthors.com/
Social | In st agr am | Facebook @alabooksandauthors

Tw it t er : AlaBooksAuthors

ALA BOOKS AND AUTHORS

Àla Books and Authors came together as a space fostered by authors
and their work, with a vision to inspire, redefine, and celebrate writing
and publishing in Pakistan. Àla is a team of artists, writers, and teachers
of literature who are passionate about harnessing their love for writing
and teaching into the world of publishing. To create, to connect, to
engage with a global community of new writers, in exploring the range
and craft of their creativity. To reclaim and preserve a dynamic and ever
growing literary heritage that has not been given its due. To tell the
untold, and imagine the unimagined.
Àla is a universal word that flows across cultures through translation. A
word bridging two languages - 'wing' in Italian and 'ascendant' in Urdu -
the fusion of these two meanings of the same word is the guiding
principle behind Àla Books and Authors. To connect, and to see our
stories soar like words on the wing.

Social | Facebook @alabooksandauthors
Tw it t er : AuthorsPk

In st agr am : AuthorsAlliance

AUTHORS ALLIANCE PAKISTAN

Authors?Alliance - Pakistan is a collective of writers, publishers, bloggers,
lawyers, concerned citizens and other stakeholders in order to establish
a united platform for the promotion and protection of rights of Pakistani
authors and other copyright holders by Awais Khan, Laaleen Sukhera,
Mehr F. Husain, Sara Naveed and Nida Usman Chaudhary. It is a
non-partisan, non-corporate and an independent collective seeking the
protection and promotion of the interests of stakeholders of the writing
industry in Pakistan that is faced with several challenges including,
amongst others, piracy, hostile polices, dearth of literary agents and
rising costs and lack of support for quality production and of efforts to
ensure access of Pakistani books to regional and international markets.
The Alliance is premised on the notions of non-discrimination, justice,
equality, access, and advancement of stakeholders and believes in
striving for a conducive environment for writing to flourish as an
industry in Pakistan.
Memberships will soon be open topersons, individuals, collectives,
n o t -f o r -p r o f it s

CON TEN TBUD

Websit e: www.contentbud.co.uk

Names are in alphabetical order ContentBud is a written communications consultancy based out of
London, UK. The firm specializes in communications for businesses by
putting the human element at the heart of business storytelling, and
working in a framework focused on connection and collaboration rather
than competition.

ContentBud provides copywriting, content marketing, and written
communication solutions. Business problems are human problems, the
firm believes; addressing gaps in the way businesses tell their stories
can drive powerful results and long-lasting impact.

The firm is founded and led by a team of professionals with experience
in diverse fields ranging from journalism, literature, education to finance
and international development. This diversity of background and
experience ensures that their approach to projects is defined equally by
solid research, business acumen and creative spunk.

ESHE Websit e: https://eshe.in
Social: @esheworld

eShe is a monthly magazine and blog based in India and Canada that
amplifies women?s voices and stories about our shared humanity. As a
monthly magazine, their magazines are available to download or read
online on eShe.in, Issuu and Magzter. With ideas, inspiration and an
intimate look at the world through ?the female gaze?, eShe has touched
the lives of millions of women and men worldwide since its launch in July
2017.

They are proudly a platform for women writers, whether published or
aspiring and periodically hold writing contests for them which have had
a fantastic response both in terms of quantity and quality of entries:
Flash Fiction Contest 2019 | Lockdown Poetry Contest 2020 | Short
Story Contest 2020.

In February 2021, eShe published an anthology of 25 short stories by 25
women writers from across India: Everything Changed After That
(Embassy Books) edited by Aekta Kapoor.

Aside being a monthly magazine, they are also a platform for women
leaders from all fields with a vision for peacebuilding. eShe hosted its
first Indo-Pak Peace Summit Led by Women over two days in January
2021, bringing together over 40 eminent women from around the world
to discuss solutions for peace in South Asia.

Many of their articles are syndicated to Money Control and are
translated to Malayalam on Azhimukham. They have also syndicated to
CNBCTV18 and News 18 in the past.

The magazine has been a media partner for The Economic Times SDGs
Summit 2020, Grant Thornton SABERA 2020 Awards, and Women
Economic Forum 2017. It has been ranked 22 among the top women?s
magazines in the world by content aggregator Feedspot.

eShe is committed to the idea of being the change they wish to see in
the world. They believe that positive and creative energy capable of
transforming the world can be generated when we invest in each
individual?s personal growth and self-transformation.

As such, the magazine has recently launched its trademarked series of
personal-growth workshops for women and teenagers called Shine Your
Light®. These are travelling across India and are held in groups of 30 to
40 participants.

Names are in alphabetical order READOM AN I A Websit e: https://www.readomania.com

Social: @Iamreadomania

Readomania is an initiative that nurtures reading and writing. It is an
online publishing platform for budding authors; a place to share stories
and poems; a place to explore your creative talent.

Established in September 2016, Readomania's annual publishing list was
streamlined from 2016 onwards. Their list includes literary, midlist, and
commercial fiction across multiple genres, short stories, poetry,
non-fiction, and children?s fiction. For this publishing platform, diversity
in content is the current focus of their publishing programme, as they
desire to bring in as many flavours as possible. Currently, they delve into
mythology retelling, historical fiction, period drama, crime, thriller,
romance, short stories, poetry, children?s fiction, humour - to name but a
few.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Readomania is the talent
hunt in fiction. It goes a step beyond by not just identifying the talent but
also nurturing it and showcasing it to the world. In the process, they
create a powerhouse of content online and in print.

Presently, Readomania has four principal interest areas ? traditional
print publishing, online library of short stories and poetry, literary
services, and products. In addition, they also have a digital imprint of
books aptly named Readomania Shots. For those books whose content
are compelling but may not make commercial sense to publish it in print
due to the market dynamics and cost economics, Readomania publishes
those manuscripts in digital ebook formats. These books are available
on Kindle, Kobo, and Google Books.

Amidst other publishing platforms, what stands Readomania out is the
extent of support and help they offer to budding authors to create a
body of literature that everyone can be proud of. The site also has a lot
in store for the reader. Since the content is edited and curated, readers
get quality reads on a platter. The variety on Readomania is impressively
vast; including romance, emotions, thrills, travel, humour, and drama. It
boasts of stories that touch your heart, inspire you, make you laugh, and
even make you cry. With Readomania books, you experience a roller
coaster ride that you are bound to always remember in your lifetime.

Websit e: https://www.seagullbooks.org

Social: Tw it t er | In st agr am |

SEAGULL BOOKS @seagullbooks
Facebook : @Seagull.books

Seagull Books publishes world literature in English translation, serious
non-fiction, culture studies, performance studies, art and cinema, with
attention to exquisite design and world-class production.

Seagull Books was founded by Naveen Kishore in 1982 as an
independent Indian publishing house specializing in serious books on
art, theatre and cinema. It published plays by major Indian playwrights,
monographs and essays by leading Indian artists, filmscripts from the
best-known Indian and European filmmakers, along with academic titles
on culture, society and the various arts.

Since 2005, Seagull Books London Limited has ventured into newer
fields of publishing, including English translations of fiction and
non-fiction by major African, European, Asian and Latin American
writers. It now boasts of a backlist of over 500 titles. Beginning with
authors such as Guillaume Apollinaire, Jean-Paul Sartre, Roland Barthes,
Jorge Luis Borges, Theodor W. Adorno, Aimé Césaire, Thomas Bernhard,
Edward Said, André Gorz, Satyajit Ray, Peter Weiss and Max Frisch,
Seagull Books now represents major contemporary writers such as Yves
Bonnefoy, Philippe Jaccottet, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Mahasweta
Devi, Peter Handke, Pascal Quignard, Hélène Cixous, Gayatri Chakravorty
Spivak, Sibylle Lewitscharoff, Marc Augé and many more.

The hallmark 'Africa List' presents writers such as Ngugi wa Thiong'o,
Maryse Condé, Ivan Vladislavi?, William Kentridge, Kossi Efoui and
Abdourrahman A. Waberi. European writers lesser known to the
English-speaking world are also showcased by Seagull? Ralf Rothmann,
Tilman Rammstedt, Inka Parei, Dorothee Elmiger, Tomas Espedal. The
list expands daily . . .

In 2012, Seagull author Mo Yan was awarded the Nobel Prize in
Literature while in 2015, Laszlo Krasznahorkai, another Seagull author,
received the prestigious Man Booker International Prize. Maryse Condé,
whose three volumes Seagull has published in English translation, won
the alternative Nobel Prize in 2018.

Info source: Seagull Books

YODA PRESS Websit e: http://yodapress.co.in
Social: @Yodapress

Names are in alphabetical order Yoda Press is a publishing house in India, with its headquarters located
at Shahpur Jat, Siri Fort, New Delhi. It is known for publishing on subjects
such as sexuality, popular culture, cities and urbanism, architecture as a
lived experience, and new perspectives in Indian history and sociology.

Yoda Press' early reputation was built on its queer list, on publications
such as Sunil Gupta's photo-memoir, Wish You Were Here; the illustrated
A Little Book on Men; and Loving Women: Being Lesbian in Unprivileged
India. In 2010, Yoda's publishing programme expanded to include
travelogues, memoirs, books on food, poetry, and even fiction. However,
the emphasis was on narratives that challenged the mainstream
d isco u r se.

Founded in 2004 with an alternative publishing vision, Yoda Press aims
to create lists around subjects that are not usually a priority for other
publishers in India, even though they have a critical presence in
contemporary discourse, authorship and an audience. Their LGBT list
and Sexualities series have been the preferred home for cutting-edge
writing in alternative sexuality since 2005.

In August 2015, Yoda Press initiated a joint imprint with Sage
Publications for their academic titles, SAGE-YODA PRESS. More recently,
in 2020, Yoda Press has established another brand new joint imprint
with Simon & Schuster India for its trade books with the Press's
characteristic political edge. Following this, the first title featured on this
joint imprint, Azadi: A Graphic Biography of Bhagat Singh (in reference to
Shaheed Bhagat Singh, the famous revolutionary martyr of India) was
published in April 2020.

Yoda Press launched its Fiction list in December 2016 and has since
then, published a number of internationally recognized fiction work. In
this same year, Yoda Press became the Winner of the Publishing Next
Publisher of the Year Award 2016 at the Publishing Next Conference,
held annually in Goa, India.

ZUKA BOOKS Websit e: www.zukabooks.com
Social: In st agr am : @zuka.books

Tw it t er : @mfhusayn

Zuka Books is a publishing house in Lahore, Pakistan. Established in August 2020
it is building a name for publishing on subjects that push for more creative space
and encourage dialogue on issues that remain unacknowledged, forgotten or
simply, ignored.

Zuka Books was founded by the journalist Mehr F Husain as an independent
platform that would focus on books that acted a documentation of Pakistani
history and culture. However, upon entry there was the realisation that there
were many more stories that needed to be told, so much more had to be added
to the literary industry and so Zuka Books opened up to poetry, graphic novels
and children?s books.

From its first publication, Zuka Books publications have had a national impact. Its
first publication -?Pakistan: A Fashionable History? ? is Pakistan?s first book on
fashion and its role in the creation of the country?s pop scene. Not only was it well
received as a book but it has become a reference point for universities who drew
lectures from it and as a research entity.

?The Burning Champa?, a non-fiction poetry book was picked up by a fashion
brand resulting in a nationwide campaign featuring the author and book was
created which addressed women and the need to acknowledge their mental
health as a serious matter as well as body positivity pushing for inclusivity and
ending body-shaming.

In 2021, Zuka Books collaborated with the Lahore based entity, The Desi
Collective, to release an anthology titled ?Letters to My Inner Child?where works in
both English and Urdu addressed the need for Pakistanis to heal internally and
help them connect with the inner self.

These are all topics that are considered ?unacceptable?for public discourse and
have actively generated conversations creating an impact which is being felt and
absorbed by society and so far, being tolerated.

Zuka Books?latest offering is a graphic novel which addresses the sensitive topic
of desi marriages and what happens when the marriage breaks down. The first of
its kind, ?Grey Matter ? is a new means of communicating issues surrounding
marriages, domestic life, children and the emotional journey of a woman in the
wake of it all.

Future publications include a documentation of the history of wall chalkings in
Pakistan and its role in communication as well as the release of a children?s book
that advocates for animal rights and protection.

Though young, Zuka Books is determined to create works of art that push creative
boundaries and encourage more tolerance for the written word and freedom of
expression.

Names are in alphabetical order Websit e: https://zubaanbooks.com
Social | Tw it t er | In st agr am : @ZubaanBooks

In st agr am : @Zubaanprojects

ZUBAAN BOOKS

Zubaan Publishers is a New Delhi-based leading independent feminist publishing house
with an NGO wing that chronicles and participates in women's movements in India and
South Asia. It was set up in 2003 as an imprint of India's first feminist publishing house,
Kali for Women, and has a strong academic and general list.Learn more about Zubaan's
projects here: https://zubaanprojects.org and browse their ebooks here:
https://zubaanbooks.com/product-category/ebooks/. Follow them on social media to stay
informed and updated about their initiatives - they are @zubaanbooks on twitter, and
@zubaanbooks and @zubaanprojects on Instagram.

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