2017/2018

Mohammed Hanif

Writer, journalist, librettist

BBC Karachi

Born in 1965 in Pakistan
Studied Avionics and Navigation at Pakistan Air Force College Sargodha and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, Norwich

Project

Red Birds of Our Soul (novel)

Like most novelists, its very difficult for me, if not impossible, to talk about a novel while I am writing it. Writing fiction for me is the process of discovering a world, not describing a world that I already know. Right now, my proposed project exists in fragments, in scribbled notes, character sketches, and long lists of things that need to be researched. I think a novel is described after it has been written, not when its an idea in a writers head.
I intend to work on an ambitious project, a novel that takes place simultaneously in about ten different locales; at this stage its a literary political thriller. I do hope to share excerpts from it with other Fellows during my Fellowship period. Ill also continue to write my nonfiction pieces and hope to share those with the other Fellows as well.

Recommended Reading

Hanif, Mohammed. The Baloch Who is Not Missing & Others Who Are (nonfiction pamphlet). Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, 2013.
-. Our Lady of Alice Bhatti (novel). London: Jonathan Cape, 2011.
-. A Case of Exploding Mangoes (novel). London: Jonathan Cape, 2008.