Bina Shah

Bina Shah is a Pakistani writer in English, living in Karachi.

Early life and education[edit]

The eldest of three children, Shah was born in Karachi to a Sindhi family. She obtained a B.A. in Psychology from Wellesley College, USA and a M.Ed in Educational Technology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, USA.^[1]

Shah is a fellow of the University of Iowa, having taken part in the International Writers Program at the Iowa Writers Workshop in 2011.^[2]

Career[edit]

Shah is the author of four novels and two collections of short stories; her 2008 novel Slum Child was a bestseller in Italy; she has been published in English, Spanish, German, Urdu, Danish, Chinese, Vietnamese and Italian. She is a contributing opinion writer for the International New York Times and writes a monthly column for Dawn, the biggest English-language newspaper in Pakistan. Her fiction and non-fiction has appeared in Granta, The Independent, Wasafiri, Critical Muslim, InterlitQ, the Istanbul Review, Asian Cha, and the award-winning collection And the World Changed. She holds degrees from Wellesley College and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and is an alum of the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program. Her novel A Season For Martyrs was published in 2014 by Delphinium Books.

Literary career[edit]

Shah's first book, a volume of short stories called Animal Medicine, was published in 2000. Her first novel, Where They Dream in Blue, was published by Alhamra in 2001. A second novel, 'The 786 Cybercafé' was published by Alhamra in 2004. In 2005, "The Optimist", a short story written by Bina was published in an anthology called And the World Changed (Women Unlimited/OUP); an essay called "A Love Affair with Lahore" was published in an anthology edited by Bapsi Sidhwa called City of Sin and Splendour - Writings on Lahore (Penguin India - Pakistani title Beloved City - OUP). In 2007 Alhamra published her second collection of short stories, Blessings.

Shah's third novel 'Slum Child' was published in India by Tranquebar, an imprint of Westland-Tata, in 2010. An Italian-language version was also published in Italy by Newton Compton in 2009 under the title La Bambina Che Non Poteva Sognare, where it reached number 3 on the paperback bestseller list,^[3] and sold over 20,000 copies. It was published in Spanish by Grijalbo, an imprint of Random House Mondadori, in June 2011.

Shah's fourth novel, A Season For Martyrs, was published by Delphinium Books (November 2014) to critical acclaim. It was also published in Italy by Newton Compton as Il Bambino Che Credeva Nella Liberta in 2010. For this novel, Shah was awarded the Premio Internazionale in the Un Mondi di Bambini category of the Almalfi Coast Literary Festival in 2010 for translated fiction.^[4]

Shah was chosen by OK! Pakistan as Best Writer of 2014.