SHAHNAZ BASHIR was born and brought up in Kashmir. His widely reviewed and critically lauded debut novel The Half Mother won the Muse India Young Writer Award 2015. His short fiction, memoir essays, poetry and reportage have been widely published and anthologized.
In its issue of January 2016, Kashmir Life, a popular weekly tabloid, profiled Shahnaz as ‘one of the nine impact makers to stand out in the 12.5 million population of t he state’.
Shahnaz teaches narrative journalism and conflict reporting at the Central University of Kashmir, Srinagar. He is a university gold medallist in journalism and was also awarded the prestigious Shamim Ahmad Shamim Memorial Kashmir Times Award 2007. He is currently working on his third book.