Shahnaz Bashir and Safwat Zargar

Shahnaz Bashir’s 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 anthologised or published in A Clutch of Indian Masterpieces: Extraordinary Short Stories from the 19th Century to the Present (Aleph Book Company, 2014); Of Occupation and Resistance–Writings from Kashmir (Tranquebar, Westland, 2013); Growing Up Kashmiri (HarperCollins, India [forthcoming]), Caravan, Himal Southasian, Fountain Ink, Kindle, the Byword, Kashmir Lit besides many others. He teaches narrative journalism and conflict reporting at the Central University of Kashmir, Srinagar. His next book Scattered Souls, a collection of interlinked stories, is out late summer in 2016 by Fourth Estate (HarperCollins). He spends time in wandering, searching stories, and learning in the streets. Safwat Zargar grew up in Kashmir. He is a Staff Writer at ScoopWhoop in New Delhi.