Arifa Akbar

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Arifa Akbar
Arifa akbar 2022 1.jpg
Akbar in 2022
BornAugust 1972
London, England
Alma mater
Years active2001–present
Employer The Guardian

Arifa Akbar is an English writer who has been chief theatre critic at The Guardian since 2019. She previously served as literary editor of The Independent and before that, a news reporter. Her memoir Consumed: A Sister's Story (2021) was shortlisted for a number of accolades.

Contents

Early life

Akbar was born in London, England, and was three years old when she went to Pakistan with her parents, who had hoped to resettle there. [1] She spent the first few years of her life moving between London and Lahore, until settling in the former city in 1977. Her family lived in an abandoned building on Hampstead High Street before finding a flat on Fellows Road, where Akbar grew up. [2]

Akbar and her sister Fauzia attended St Paul's Church of England Primary School in Primrose Hill and then Parliament Hill School. [2] She graduated from the University of Edinburgh. [3]

Career

Akbar joined The Independent in 2001, working as a news reporter. Akbar then became an arts correspondent and was promoted to literary editor of the publication, a position she held until 2016. [4] She subsequently served as head of content at Unbound [5] and arts editor of Tortoise Media. She was also founding editor of Boundless Magazine. In 2019, Akbar was appointed chief theatre critic at The Guardian . [6]

In 2020, Sceptre (a Hodder & Stoughton imprint) acquired the rights to publish Akbar's debut non-fiction book Consumed: A Sister's Story in 2021. [7] The memoir charts the turbulent life of Akbar's late older sister Fauzia, who suddenly passed away from tuberculosis in 2016. [8] Consumed: A Sister's Story was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize, the Costa Book Award for Biography, and the Ackerley Prize. It was also longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize.

Akbar reunited with Sceptre for the publication in 2025 of her second non-fiction book Wolf Moon: A Woman's Journey Into the Night. [9] Containing vignettes of her relationship with night time, [10] [11] she said the book "began as a singular question: Why am I afraid of darkness?" [12]

Bibliography

Accolades

YearAwardCategoryTitleResultRef.
2021 Jhalak Prize Consumed: A Sister's StoryShortlisted [13]
Baillie Gifford Prize Longlisted [14]
2022 Costa Book Awards Biography Shortlisted [15]
Ackerley Prize Shortlisted [16]

References

  1. ↑ Akbar, Arifa (29 May 2021). "My closest friend, my biggest enemy: can I make sense of my sister's life and death?". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  2. 1 2 Cobbinah, Angela (18 November 2021). "Artwork was like small, beautiful, incomparable pieces of my sister'". Camden New Journal. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
  3. ↑ Anderson, Hephzibah (13 June 2021). "Consumed: A Sister's Story by Arifa Akbar review – astonishing emotional integrity". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
  4. ↑ Smalley, Nichola (6 September 2017). "Our Creativity is Boundless". And Other Stories. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
  5. ↑ Onwuemezi, Natasha (30 August 2017). "Akbar to edit online literary magazine for Unbound". The Bookseller. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
  6. ↑ "Arifa Akbar appointed Guardian chief theatre critic". The Guardian. 8 November 2019. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
  7. ↑ Cowdrey, Katherine (7 July 2020). "Akbar's memoir of sisterhood, TB and grief to Sceptre". The Bookseller. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
  8. ↑ Atkins, Lucy (6 June 2021). "Consumed by Arifa Akbar, review — losing her sister to tuberculosis". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 9 October 2024.
  9. ↑ Snow, Maia (25 March 2025). "Sceptre snaps up new book by Jhalak-shortlisted author and critic Arifa Akbar". The Bookseller. Retrieved 8 August 2025.
  10. ↑ Hay, Daisy (11 July 2025). "Wolf Moon by Arifa Akbar — rich and complex stories on people of the night". Financial Times. Retrieved 8 August 2025.
  11. ↑ Block, India (8 August 2025). "Wolf Moon by Arifa Akbar review: An unsettling companion for a sleepless night". London Evening Standard.
  12. ↑ Bilgrami, Rida (3 July 2025). "Pulsating Between the Micro and the Macro: A Conversation with Writer and Critic Arifa Akbar". Something Curated. Retrieved 8 August 2025.
  13. ↑ Brown, Lauren (19 April 2022). "Jhalak Prize 2022 shortlists announced as judges hail 'extraordinary' talent". The Bookseller. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
  14. ↑ Bayley, Sian (8 September 2021). "Sanghera, Akbar and Radden Keefe make Baillie Gifford Prize longlist". The Bookseller. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  15. ↑ Flood, Alison (23 November 2021). "Costa prize 2021 shortlists highlight climate anxiety". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 7 December 2022.
  16. ↑ "Arifa Akbar, Frances Stonor Saunders and Roy Watkins shortlisted for PEN Ackerley Prize 2022". English PEN. 14 July 2022. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
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