ABOUT ME

I am an author, translator, and storyteller. These interests have converged over the years; one kind helping me discover the other, and taking me a little further into the past. My latest work is The Merman and the Book of Power⁠—written in the qissa genre that originated in the oral literatures of Urdu, Persian and Arabic.

I am working on establishing an Urdu language publishing program specializing in children's literature and classics. I founded the publishing house Kitab (2012), launched the online Urdu Thesaurus (2016), and designed the interactive storytelling and activity-based learning program Storykit (2016) as three segments of this project.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Qissas

• The Merman and the Book of Power (2019)

• The Jinn Darazgosh (2010)

Novels

• Between Clay and Dust (2012)

• The Story of a Widow (2008)

• The Time of the Termites (2001)

Children's Fiction

• Tik-Tik, the Master of Time (2013)

• Rabbit Rap: A Fable (2012)

• The Amazing Moustaches of Moochhander the Iron Man and Other Stories (2011)

• The Cobbler's Holiday or Why Ants Don't Wear Shoes (2008)

Translations

• Three Sindhi Folktales (2014)

• The Adventures of Amir Hamza - ABRIDGED (2012)

• Mouse Pickle (2012)

• The Beast (2010)

• Rococo and Other Worlds (2010)

• Hoshruba: The Land and the Tilism (2009)

• The Adventures of Amir Hamza (2007)

Folktale Retellings in Urdu

• پیٹو ریچھ اور شاندار کھچڑی (2019)

• بینگن شہزادی (2019)

• مٹریا اور پٹریا (2019)

• جوں چٹ پٹ (2018)

• پودنا اور پودنی (2017)

HONORS

• Fellow, Harvard University South Asia Institute, Spring 2017

• Finalist, Man Asian Literary Prize 2012 for Between Clay and Dust

• Finalist DSC Prize for Literature 2011 for The Story of a Widow

• PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant 2011 for Hoshruba