Dur e Aziz Amna
Writer
Writer
I'm a Pakistani writer based between Rawalpindi and Ann Arbor. My work has appeared in the New York Times, Financial Times, Longreads, Dawn, and Himal Southasian, among others. I won the 2019 Financial Times / Bodley Head Essay Prize, with an e-book publication by Penguin. I have been a recipient of fellowships from Aspen Words and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.
I graduated from Yale College in 2015 and am currently an MFA candidate at the Helen Zell Writers' Program, where my debut novel-in-progress has won the Hopwood and Busch Prizes.
I am represented by Matthew Turner at Rogers, Coleridge & White.
Writings
Fiction
"A Cold Heart," Himal Southasian, January 2020
Shortlisted for the 2019 Himal Southasian Short Story Competition
"Ordinary," December 2019
Shortlisted for the 2019 Zeenat Haroon Rashid Story Prize
"Asma," London Magazine, April 2018
2017 London Magazine Short Story Competition, 2nd Place
Personal Essay
"Writing Into and Out of My Long-Distance Grief," New York Times, December 2020
"Your Tongue is Still Yours," Financial Times, November 2019
2019 Financial Times / Bodley Head Essay Prize Winner (e-book link)
"House on Mayo Road," Longreads, November 2018
"American Smile," The Offing, June 2018
Food & Culture
"The Ismaili Muslims of Pakistan," The Juggernaut, April 2020
"Finding South Asia on the Swahili Coast," The Juggernaut, October 2019
"Good Woman, Bad Woman," The Juggernaut, August 2019
"Forget white bloggers from Poland. How much do Pakistanis know about domestic tourism?" Dawn, May 2019
"Pakistan's Wedding Industrial Complex," Dawn, April 2019
"Why do women have to sit in family halls in restaurants?" Dawn, March 2019
"The Ramadan Drummer of Coney Island," Roads & Kingdoms, June 2017
"The Best Little Lunch Dive in Islamabad," Roads & Kingdoms, May 2017
"From Portugal to the Ironbound," Roads & Kingdoms, March 2017
Travel
Sri Lanka: "Teardrop in the Indian Ocean," The News, March 2019
Myanmar: "At Home in Burma," The News, March 2019
Vietnam: "Vietnam's Heart," The News, March 2019
Cambodia: "In the Land of Angkor Kings," The News, February 2019
Indonesia: "Javanese Days," The News, February 2019
Colombia: "Amethyst Afternoons in Cartagena," The News, April 2018
Portugal: "The Island No One Told You About," The News, April 2018
Book Reviews
"An Ode to Innocence," The News, June 2018
"Speaking Truth to Empire," The News, April 2018
Translation
"Yours and Mine," Annual of Urdu Studies Volume 28, 2013
Literary Criticism
"Requiem: Agha Shahid Ali’s Last Canzone," Mad Heart Be Brave, University of Michigan Press, 2017
"Postcolonial London," Columbia Journal of Literary Criticism Volume XIII, Spring 2015
Other Honors
Longlisted, Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award, 2020
Busch Prize in Fiction, University of Michigan, 2020
Hopwood Prize in Novel, University of Michigan, 2020
Hopwood Prize in Nonfiction, University of Michigan, 2020
Wagner Prize in Nonfiction, University of Michigan, 2020
Longlisted, Commonwealth Short Story Prize, 2019
Emerging Writers Fellowship, Aspen Words, 2018
NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Scholarship, Catapult Writing Workshop, 2018