Rukhsana Ahmad

Rukhsana Ahmad (born 1948) is a Pakistani writer of novels, short stories, poetry, plays, and a translator, who after marriage migrated to England for further studies and pursue a career in writing. She has campaigned for Asian writers, particularly women.

Biography

Rukhsana Ahmad was born in Karachi, Pakistan, in 1948. She did her schooling in many schools in different cities in Pakistan. She did her college education in Punjab University and in Karachi obtained Master of Arts degree from the Karachi University in English Literature and Linguistics. She then joined the University of Karachi and taught English Literature, until she married.
Subsequent to her marriage she migrated to England, where she obtained degrees from the Reading University and the University of the Arts.

Stationed in London with her family, Ahmad began a freelance career as a playwright and journalist. She began translating works from Urdu into English, such as a volume of women's protest poetry under the title ''We Sinful Women'' (1991), which included the work of Kishwar Naheed, Fahmida Riaz, and Sara Shagufta among others; and Altaf Fatima's novel ''The One Who Did Not Ask'' (1993). Ahmad's first novel was ''The Hope Chest'' (1996), which highlights the life of a young woman brought up in two "different worlds".
During 1991, as resident writer in Cleveland, Ahmad was editor of ''Dreams into Words'' and ''Daughters of the East''. She was also a contributing writer to 2024's ''Feminist Theatre Then & Now: Celebrating 50 years''.

As a popular playwright she has written numerous plays, such as ''Homing Birds'' and ''Song for a Sanctuary'', which launched her career in radio and stage shows and ''Mistaken...Annie Besant in India'' (2007). She has also adapted plays for BBC Radio, including ''Wide Sargasso Sea'' by Jean Rhys, '' Woman at Point Zero'' by Nawal El Saadawi, ''Midnight's Children'' by Salman Rushdie and ''Maps for Lost Lovers'' by Nadeem Aslam. In June and October 1991, Ahmad's play ''Song for a Sanctuary was played in many theaters in Britain. It was also published in an anthology of plays; ''Six Plays by Black and Asian Women Writers''.2022, Aurora Metro Books. Retrieved 10 June 2025.
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Ahmad became a member of the Asian Women Writers Collective in London in 1984. Along with Rita Wolf, in 1990 she co-established the Kali Theatre Company in London, which she headed for eight years. She has founded the South Asian Arts and Literature in the Diaspora Archive in the United Kingdom known as ''Salidaa'' (now ''Sadaa''). She is also an advisory fellow of the Royal Literary Fund at Queen Mary's College, University of London.

Awards

Ahmad has won many accolades in the form of nominations for well-known awards such as the Commission for Racial Equality Award, the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award, the Sony Award, and the 2002 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her play ''River on Fire'' (2001) won her the second place for the Susan Smith Blackburn theatre award. For her play ''Wide Sargasso Sea'' she received the Writers' Guild of Great Britain radio adaptation award.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahmad, Rukhsana
1948 births
Living people
Pakistani women novelists
Pakistani novelists
Pakistani women journalists
20th-century Pakistani women writers
Writers from Karachi
University of Karachi alumni
University of the Punjab alumni
Academic staff of the University of Karachi
Pakistani emigrants to England
Alumni of the University of the Arts London
Alumni of the University of Reading