Residency artists and researchers Literature Short Stories from Pakistan – An Anthology Workgroup: Sara Naveed and Awais Khan Short Stories from Pakistan – An Anthology is a collection of six short stories from three writers of Pakistan who come from diverse backgrounds and write in different genres. These short stories will be genre-bending and genre fluid ranging from romance to literary, to crime and contemporary women’s fiction. We are interested in writing about women and minorities in Pakistan who do not usually get a central voice in Pakistan. We want to explore writing which is reflexive, resistant and revisionist and focuses on women’s histories as well as the dispossession of minorities. This project intends to share stories of the dispossessed, under-privileged and exiled from society like the intersex community in Pakistan and the growing transgender community often reviled and relegated to the subfusc corners of polite society. This anthology focuses on folktales, love stories, and hidden trauma. Sara Naveed Sara Naveed is the best-selling author of five popular books: Undying Affinity, Our Story Ends Here, All of My Heart, The World Between Us, and The Cold Heart. Her first four books were published by Penguin Random House India, while she self-published her fifth book. All her works have achieved best-seller status in the Southeast Asian market. Sara completed her primary education at Ibn Seena English High School in Sharjah and matriculated from the Convent of Jesus and Mary in Sialkot. She then earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business and a Master’s degree in Banking and Finance from UMT, Lahore. Writing has always been Sara’s dream, and she hopes that people appreciate her work, which she deeply values. In addition to writing fiction novels, she works as a content lead at a leading software firm. She has just finished her sixth book, which is currently being queried. Recently, she won a grant from the Saari Residence in Finland, where she will visit in mid-2024 to work on an anthology based on Southeast Asian short stories. Awais Khan Awais Khan is a graduate of The University of Western Ontario and Durham University. He has studied creative writing with Faber Academy in London. He is the award-winning and international bestselling author of three novels: In The Company of Strangers, No Honour and Someone Like Her and is published by prestigious publishers including Simon & Schuster, Orenda Books and Hera Books. His fourth novel In The Shadows of Love will be published by Hera Books in October 2024. He has been longlisted for the Short Story Dagger and shortlisted for the Dead Good Reader Awards. He won the World Book Award with Woman and Home in 2021. He has been on the judging panel for the Cheshire Novel Prize and Gwyl Crime Cymru Novel Prize. He regularly appears on television and radio with his most recent appearance being on BBC with a standalone program for In the Studio (produced by Paul Waters). He has also attended several high profile literary festivals including Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, Sharjah Book Fair, Capital Crime London, Lahore Literary Festival, Faiz Festival, Dublin Book Fair (online). He also leads the Writing Institute in Pakistan, offering affordable creative writing courses to aspiring writers.