Bina Shah

Shah's first book, a volume of short stories called Animal Medicine, was published in 2000. Her first novel, Where They Dream in Blue, was published by Alhamra in 2001. A second novel, The 786 Cybercafé, was published by Alhamra in 2004. In 2005, her short story "The Optimist" was published in the anthology And the World Changed (Women Unlimited/OUP); an essay called "A Love Affair with Lahore" was published in an anthology edited by Bapsi Sidhwa called City of Sin and Splendour - Writings on Lahore (Penguin India - Pakistani title Beloved City -— OUP). In 2007 Alhamra published her second collection of short stories, Blessings. Shah's third novel Slum Child was published in India by Tranquebar, an imprint of Westland-Tata, in 2010. An Italian-language version was published in 2009 under the title La Bambina Che Non Poteva Sognare by Newton Compton Editori in Italy, where it reached number 3 on the paperback bestseller list, and sold more than 20,000 copies. It was published in Spanish by Grijalbo, an imprint of Random House Mondadori, in June 2011. Shah's fourth novel, A Season for Martyrs, was published by Delphinium Books (November 2014) to critical acclaim. It was also published in Italy by Newton Compton as Il Bambino Che Credeva Nella Liberta in 2010. For this novel, Shah was awarded the Premio Internazionale in the Un Mondi di Bambini category of the Almalfi Coast Literary Festival in 2010 for translated fiction. Shah's fifth novel Before She Sleeps, a feminist dystopian novel, was published by Delphinium Books in 2018. An extract from the novel was featured in the Dawn's special 70th anniversary Pakistan edition "Seventy+Seventy". The novel was praised by Margaret Atwood on Twitter as "a fascinating new angle on 'emotional work'." American newspaper Los Angeles Times it "charged and thrilling." Before She Sleeps was recognized as part of a new canon of feminist dystopia pioneered by Booker Prize winning author Atwood and relevant to the global fight for women's rights and empowerment worldwide, as well as an important part of the #MeToo movement. Shah's novel was also considered noteworthy because it stood out from most Western-centric feminist dystopias, describing a futuristic society in the Middle East where women are forced into polygamous marriages by an authoritarian government in a society ravaged by war and disease. Shah's sixth novel The Monsoon War, the sequel to Before She Sleeps and the second book in a dystopian trilogy, was published by Delphinium Books in 2023. The novel is set in a fragmented South Asia and follows women soldiers in a resistance movement. Shah is currently completing the third novel in the trilogy. In 2019 Shah contributed an essay, "The Life and Death of Pakistan's Sabeen Mahmud", about the assassination of Pakistan's beloved human rights activist Sabeen Mahmud, to the anthology Brave New Words: The Power of Writing Now published by Myriad and edited by Susheila Nasta. The anthology of fifteen specially commissioned essays examining the value of critical thinking and the power of the written word was published to commemorate 35 years of Wasafiri, a UK magazine of international literature. Other contributors to the anthology included Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo, Githa Hariharan, Eva Hoffman, Romesh Gunesekera, James Kelman, Tabish Khair, Kei Miller, Blake Morrison, Mukoma wa Ngugi, Hsiao-Hung Pai, and Marina Warner. Shah contributed the short story "A Bird With One Wing" to the anthology The American Way: Stories of Invasion, published by Comma Press in 2021. The story was later reprinted in Dædalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in Spring 2023.

Shah has been the recipient of several awards and honors. • Premio Internazionale, Un Mondi di Bambini category, Almalfi Coast Literary Festival, 2010 for the Italian translation Il Bambino Che Credeva Nella Liberta of her novel, A Season For Martyrs. • Agahi Award for excellence in journalism, 2013, 2014/15. • Dr. Neila C. Sesachari prize from Weber University's literary journal, Weber - The Contemporary West for her short story "The Living Museum" • Salam Award for Imaginative Fiction, 2022, Finalist. • Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, 2022. • Infaq-AdabFest English Fiction Writers' Award, 2024. • KLF Getz Pharma English Fiction Prize for The Monsoon War, 2025.