Copyright © Farah Ahamed 2024. All rights reserved. Web design by H:L:D
2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013
Essay News Poem Review Short Story
2022 | Essay
No Time To Sleep
My essay, No Time To Sleep: a theatre experience, has been published by Memoir Monday.
Memoir Monday is a weekly newsletter featuring the best personal essays from around the web, in collaboration with a wide range of publications including: Narratively, The Rumpus, Catapult, Granta, Guernica, Oldster Magazine, Literary Hub, and Orion Magazine.
In 2019, according to Amnesty, there were at least 2,307 deaths from capital punishment and 27,000 facing the death sentence in 56 countries. This number is considered to be artificially low because of the unavailability of reliable information. 60% of the world’s population live in states where capital punishment is legal.
No Time to Sleep, is a twenty four hour live performance in the shoes of a dead man, showing acting at its most powerful. I watched it two years ago when I was in Lahore, but even now, I often wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it. The play is based on the final hours of Prisoner Z or Dr Zulfiqar Ali Khan, a person, charged with murder in Pakistan. Even though his lawyers argued that Zulfiqar had acted purely out of self-defence during an armed robbery he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Zulfiqar spent seventeen years incarcerated, and seven years on the death-row during which time his execution was scheduled and halted more than twenty times. He was executed in 2015…
www.thedreamingmachine.com/no-time-to-sleep-a-theatre-experience-farah-ahamed
2022 | Review
Anarkali, or Six Early Deaths in Lahore
A review by Mel Ulm of my short story, Anarkali, or Six Early Deaths in Lahore. Published in The Reading Life.
I have been closely following the work of Farah Ahamed since April 15, 2015. Anarkali, or Six Deaths in Lahore is set in contemporary Lagore, the capital of Pakistan. This marvellous story focuses on how six connected people die as a result of the corruption and deeply embedded cultural and religious prejudices in Pakistan…
rereadinglives.blogspot.com/2022/11/anarkali-or-six-early-deaths-in-lahorea.html
2022 | News
Shortlisted, Bridport Short Story Prize
I am very pleased to have been shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize, for my story Just a Name.
2022 | Short Story
Anarkali, or Six Early Deaths in Lahore
My short story Anarkali, or Six Early Deaths in Lahore has been published in The Markaz Review.
In the ancient romantic tale, Anarkali was a courtesan dancer in the Mughal court of Salim Jahangir who dared to fall in love with him. As the story goes, she was buried or burnt alive for her crime. Here, she is a poor street sweeper in Lahore, nicknamed Anarkali by a white professor researching bombing incidents on the city’s churches. Anarkali is the ordinary woman who is invisible, who goes unnoticed and unremarked by history. She is the one who dares to live her life in her own way, and pays a heavy price for it. Even today, centuries later, for a woman to love someone outside her class and caste is fraught with danger.
themarkaz.org/anarkali-or-six-early-deaths-in-lahore-fiction-by-farah-ahamed
2022 | Short Story
Hot Mango Chutney Sauce
My story, Hot Mango Chutney Sauce, was shortlisted for the 2022 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Watch the office music video of Hot Mango Chutney Sauce, starring Meesha Shafi and featuring Swineryy.
2022 | Poem
Don’t Ask Me
A poem published on La Macchina Sognante, an Italian-language website founded by writers and poets who felt the need to build a space for writings and debates, both national and international.
Don’t Ask Me
Don’t ask me my name, ask me where I’m from, where I’m really from, where I was born,
why I was born there and where I live now and why.
Don’t tell me your name, or why you’re here near the security checkpoint, in the middle of
the mountain ranges, selling second-hand shoes from a kiosk with a broken roof.
Tell me instead about the time you stood in the middle of a field watching the night sky
during a thunderstorm.
2022 | Poem
Alphabet
Written on 7th April 2022, moved by world events.
A is for Afghanistan (countries not allowed) is for the apple tree that won’t grow in the orchard that we called Eden now filled with rubble
B is for boy, the one left behind, the one who made it on the train alone, the one who watched the sky falling down, the last thing he saw
C is for cat, the one trapped under the kitchen table the night the house collapsed…
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…