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Essay News Poem Review Short Story
2022 | News
Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize
I’m thrilled to be included in the shortlist for this year’s Commonwealth Short Story Prize for my story Hot Chutney Mango Sauce.
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded annually for the best piece of unpublished short fiction from the Commonwealth. This year’s shortlist was chosen by the international judging panel from over 6700 entries from 52 Commonwealth countries…
It was only yesterday when the last girl, Maryam, took her turn with paracetamols and cheap alcohol. A few weeks earlier, Zainab, had done the same, but Laila, who had followed Hafsa, had slit her wrists. When the police took us in for questioning, we said we were ready to cooperate. We even offered to share our photographs. After all, who better than us could explain what happened to the girls?
2022 | Review
Review of Warm Beers and Soggy Burgers
A review of my story Warm Beers and Soggy Burgers by Mel Ulm.
I first began to follow the work of Farah Ahamed on April 3, 2015. Warm Beers and Soggy Burgers is the ninth of her short stories upon which I have posted. I reserve such coverage for writers whose talent and insight I greatly value.
Several of her stories are set in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital and deal with a wonderful character, Dr. Patel, of whom I have become very fond.
My main purpose here is to continue my records of reading the work of Farah Ahamed and to let interested readers know of the availability of this marvellous short story online.
The story is narrated by an affluent married woman living in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Her husband, Inayat, has booked a family trip to Thailand for next week but neglected to tell her. She is upset as she has a radio job interview set up…
rereadinglives.blogspot.com/2022/04/warm-beers-and-soggy-burgers-by-farah.html
2022 | Short Story
Warm Beers and Soggy Burgers
I’m thrilled that my short story, Warm Beers and Soggy Burgers, is being published in Mechanics’ Institute Review. Publication date, 28th February.
MIR is a contemporary magazine designed to represent the quality and diversity of the UK literary scene. The website is managed by Project Director, Julia Bell, and Managing Editor, Peter John Coles, and maintained and edited by a rotating group of Birkbeck students, alumni and staff.
If you ever come looking for me, you’ll find me sitting in my car at the Kisementi car park, listening to Radio One. Kisementi is a shopping centre on Number 12 Bukoto Street, in Kololo, a suburb of Kampala. Opposite me are the Fat Boyz pub and Payless Supermarket. On my left are a local handicraft shop, The Banana Boat and The Crocodile restaurant and, on my right, the Christian Bookshop. From my car, I enjoy watching the congestion of boda bodas, special hires, taxis, matatus and private cars. I do this every day for a few minutes or few hours. It all depends…
2021 | Essay
Layers of overlap
Layers of overlap: theatre, cinema, memory, imagination.
An essay, published by The Dream Machine, 30th November 2021.
While watching a play at the theatre, our faces are a paradox. They are private and yet public. We are in the company of others in the auditorium, but once we start watching, we are alone. We drop our masks. Our faces are unguarded, not like when we’re in a café or on a bus, when we are aware of those around us.
For some, as the play progresses, they become more immersed and unselfconscious. But for others, the opposite happens. They may lose interest, or feel uncomfortable. They might choose to avoid confronting what’s on the stage and resort to texting on their phone, or playing with their partner’s hand, or simply closing their eyes and blocking it all. Still others may fidget, waiting for a lull so they can leave the auditorium with minimal disturbance.
There are as many responses to a play as there are people in the audience, and their reactions may be as interesting as the play itself…
www.thedreamingmachine.com/layers-of-overlap-theatre-cinema-memory-imagination-farah-ahamed
2021 | Essay
Invisible Women
An essay, published on The Dream Machine, 25th November 2021.
Ayad Akhtar’s play, The Invisible Hand, recently staged at the Kiln Theatre had an entirely male cast. There were four characters and the setting was a cell in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Akhtar’s play is about Nick, an American banker kidnapped by a terrorist group led by Imam Saleem. Nick’s jail guard is a Dar, who is supervised by Bashir, Imam Saleem’s sidekick. Nick, captured for an exorbitant ransom which he knows no one will pay, promises to raise the money through his expertise of the markets in exchange for his freedom. He teaches Bashir how to study the markets.
The ‘invisible hand,’ is a metaphor and refers to the unseen forces that move the market economy. The play has various overlapping themes, including religious fundamentalism, excessive materialism, human connection, and the lack thereof. During the entire play there are only four moments of humanity displayed by the largely unlikeable characters.
However, it was none of this that made the experience uncomfortable viewing. I’m not against stories or plays with only one gender or jail settings. The claustrophobia of the closed space, a small room remote from the rest of the world, and the inactivity and lack of interaction of the prisoner with the outside, allows a writer or playwright to explore their characters more fully.
It was what the absence of women suggested, in this particular context of frenzied male aggression, which made it harrowing viewing…
2021 | News
Bridport Shortlist
I am very pleased to be shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize for my story Queen Victoria in the Basement.
You can view the full shortlist here (pdf).
2021 | News
If trees were lone women
I’m so pleased that one of my poems has been selected to be a part of this exciting, innovative project.
‘If trees were lone women what would they sound like’ is a sound installation deep in the Galloway Forest.
It’s an opportunity for those on site to track, trace and immerse themselves in the audio of women from around the world whispering in words, sounds and music from 17 identified trees. In creating a loosely delineated star shaped ‘Lone Women Wood’ this work will produce an ongoing record of answers to the question often asked of women, how do you feel about going into the woods alone, and will facilitate the voices of those who might not otherwise do so, to be heard there.
2021 | News
Highly commended for CWFA
The results have been announced for this year’s Creative Future Writers’ Awards, celebrating prose and poetry from under-represented writers. I am thrilled that my entry, the short story No One Can Save Anyone, has been highly commended by the judges.
My story is included in Essential, an anthology of all the winning entries from the 2021 Creative Future Writers’ Award. It’s available to purchase from their website.
2021 | News
20 Years CRASSH
I have been selected as one of the authors included in the 20 Years CRASSH Online Publication, which will be published in autumn 2021.
CRASSH (Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities) is one of the largest humanities institutes in the world and is a major presence in academic life in the UK. It serves at once to draw together disciplinary perspectives in Cambridge and to disseminate new ideas to audiences across Europe and beyond.
Download Global Conversations (pdf, 16MB)
www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/programmes/20-years-crassh-online-publication-open-call
2021 | News
2021 Primadonna Prize
I am thrilled to be included in the long list for the 2021 Primadonna Prize. The short list will be announced later this year.
Primadonna is the first literary festival in the UK specifically to give prominence to work by women, as well as writers of all genders, economic statuses and ethnicities whose voices are not usually heard. It strives to tackle the current imbalance in the literary and publishing world, and to create a space where all ideas are welcome and all experiences are of equal value.