Shahnaz Bashir

Bashir in 2024

Shahnaz Bashir is a Kashmiri novelist and academic from Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir.[1]

Education and work

Shahnaz Bashir is a doctoral fellow and teaching associate in Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass).[2] He teaches "Writing As Communication" and "Public Speaking", and has been awarded a commendation for "excellent pedagogy" by the Directorate of Graduate Programs at the Department of Communication at UMass. Earlier in 2021 and 2022, he was consecutively twice a finalist for Distinguished Teaching Award in the Grad Teaching Associate category at the university. He was also awarded the Research Enhancement and Leadership (REAL) Fellowship by UMass.[3]

Before coming to UMass, he taught narrative journalism and conflict reportage at the Central University of Kashmir.[4]

Kashmir Life, in its Jan 2016 year-ender special issue, declared Shahnaz as "one of the eleven impact-makers from the entire population of Jammu & Kashmir".[5]

He is the South Asia juror for the True Story Award, the first-ever global journalism prize instituted in Bern Switzerland.[6]

Critical acclaim

His debut novel The Half Mother (Hachette, 2014) won the Muse India Young Writer Award 2015.[7] The Marathi translation of The Half Mother was published in 2017,[8] the Telugu version came out in December 2022.[9] The French version of the novel (La Mère Orpheline) was published by Editions du Rocher in Paris.[10] The Half Mother is the first-ever novel from Kashmir to be translated into a foreign (European) language.

Shahnaz Bashir's second book Scattered Souls (HarperCollins, 2016) was longlisted for "Tata Lit Live Award 2017" for Best Book - Fiction. It was conferred with The Citizen's "Talent of the Year Award 2017".[11] In April 2018, Kashmir Observer reported "Scattered Souls is the best-selling fiction book in Kashmir till date... Its sales [in the bookstores of Srinagar] have surpassed the other fiction titles by Kashmiri writers writing in English".[12] His works of fiction have been compared with Saadat Hasan Manto and Anton Chekov.[13] The Asian Age observed: "There are easy comparisons with Manto in the often-shocking glibness with which Bashir lays bare a character's innermost feelings, or with Chekov in the rootedness of the characters to their circumstances."[13]

In 2017, Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council awarded him a writer's research residency at Winterthur, Switzerland.[14]

Books

  • The Half Mother (Hachette, 2014),[15]
  • Scattered Souls (HarperCollins, 2016),[16]
  • The Disease forthcoming...[citation needed]

Book chapters

  • Cinema Palladium, Nachbilder: Eine Foto Text Anthologie (Spector Books via Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and Fotomuseum Winterthur 2021),[17]
  • The Gravestone, A Clutch of Indian Masterpieces (Aleph Book Company 2016),[18]

Awards

  • Emerging Scholar Award 2024, by Common Ground Research Network, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA[19]
  • Research Enhancement and Leadership (REAL) Fellowship (2021-2024), awarded by the University of Massachusetts Amherst[20]
  • 2023 Winter Non-Working Fellowship, awarded by Directorate of Graduate Studies, Department of Communication, UMass Amherst[21]
  • Pro-Helvetia Swiss Arts Council Writer's Residency Award 2018[22]
  • The Citizen's Talent of the Year Award 2016-17[citation needed]
  • Scattered Souls Longlisted for Tata Lit Live Award Best Book Fiction 2017[citation needed]
  • Winner of Muse India Young Writer Award 2015 for The Half Mother[citation needed]
  • Shamim Ahmad Shamim Memorial-Kashmir Times Award 2007[citation needed]
  • University Gold Medal and Award of Merit for a post-graduate degree in media studies, class of 2004-2006[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ Naqushbandi, Ubeer (20 January 2017). "I prefer writing to affect my relationship with life at large: Shahnaz Bashir". The Punch Magazine. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  2. ^ "Shahnaz Bashir". University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Communication. Archived from the original on 24 October 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  3. ^ "Department of Communication - Shahnaz Bashir". University of Massachusetts. Archived from the original on 24 October 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  4. ^ "Faculty: Shahnaz Bashir". Central University of Kashmir. Archived from the original on 30 September 2018. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  5. ^ Raafi, Muhammad (27 October 2016). "Award Winning Author Shahnaz Bashir's 'Scattered Souls' Launched". Kashmir Life. Archived from the original on 11 April 2019. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  6. ^ "Shahnaz Bashir - Jury". True Story Award. Archived from the original on 24 February 2023. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  7. ^ "Author Overview: Shanaz Bashir". HarperCollins Publishers India. Archived from the original on 2 June 2023. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  8. ^ "The Half Mother by Shahnaz Bashir (Translated by Geetanjali Vaishampayan)". Payal Books. Archived from the original on 1 December 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  9. ^ "Kanniti Kashmir lo Oka Amma by Shahnaz Bashir". Logili Telugu Books. Archived from the original on 1 December 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  10. ^ "La Mère Orpheline". Éditions du Rocher. Archived from the original on 1 December 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  11. ^ "Novelist Shahnaz Bashir wins Talent of the Year Award". Kashmir Observer. 9 March 2017. Archived from the original on 30 May 2023. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  12. ^ "Scattered Souls is the best-selling fiction book in Kashmir till date". 23 April 2018.
  13. ^ a b Attari, Karishma (22 January 2017). "Book review: A snapshot of Kashmir with a time and date stamp". The Asian Age. Archived from the original on 15 February 2020. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  14. ^ "Shahnaz Bashir - Research Residency 2018". Pro Helvetia. 2018. Archived from the original on 27 March 2023. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  15. ^ "The Half Mother: A Novel by Shahnaz Bashir". Hachette India. Archived from the original on 1 December 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  16. ^ "Scattered Souls by Shahnaz Bashir". HarperCollins India. Archived from the original on 1 December 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  17. ^ "Nachbilder". Spector Books. Archived from the original on 1 December 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  18. ^ "Shahnaz Bashir". The Punch Magazine. Archived from the original on 1 December 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  19. ^ "Emerging Scholar Awards 2024". The Image Conference. Archived from the original on 1 December 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  20. ^ "Shahnaz Bashir - Directory". University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Communication. Archived from the original on 1 December 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  21. ^ "Shahnaz Bashir - Directory". University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Communication. Archived from the original on 1 December 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
  22. ^ "Ich wünschte, ich wäre unter normalen Umständen aufgewachsen". Landbote. 14 February 2018. Archived from the original on 1 December 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2023.