Mohammed Hanif | |
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![]() Hanif Mohammed Koeln | |
Born | November 1964 Okara, Punjab, Pakistan |
Occupation | Writer, journalist |
Nationality | ![]() ![]() |
Alma mater | University of East Anglia, Pakistan Air Force Academy |
Period | 2008–present |
Notable works | A Case of Exploding Mangoes |
Notable awards | Wellcome Book Prize, Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Commonwealth Prize for Best Book |
Spouse | Nimra Bucha [1] |
Mohammed Hanif (born November 1964) is a British-Pakistani writer and journalist. [2] His work has been published by The New York Times , [3] [4] The Daily Telegraph , [5] The New Yorker [6] and The Washington Post . Hanif worked as a correspondent for the BBC News based in Karachi and was the writer of a feature film about the city, The Long Night. [7] [8] [9] Hanif has written two novels, A Case of Exploding Mangoes . [10] and Our Lady of Alice Bhatti , as well as a play, The Dictator's Wife, which was staged at the Hampstead Theatre. [11]
He was born in Okara, Punjab. He graduated from Pakistan Air Force Academy as a pilot officer, but subsequently left to pursue a career in journalism. [12] He initially worked for Newsline and wrote for The Washington Post and India Today . He is a graduate of the University of East Anglia. [13] In 1996, he moved to London to work for the BBC. Later, he became the head of the BBC's Urdu service in London. [13] He moved back to Pakistan in 2008. [14]
His first novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes (2008) was shortlisted for the 2008 Guardian First Book Award [15] and longlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize. [16] It won the 2009 Commonwealth Book Prize in the Best First Book category [17] and the 2008 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize. [18]
Hanif has also written for the stage and screen, including a feature film, The Long Night (2002), [9] a BBC radio play, What Now, Now That We Are Dead?, and the stage play The Dictator's Wife (2008). [19] His second novel, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, was published in 2011. [20] It was shortlisted for the Wellcome Trust Book Prize (2012), [21] and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature (2013). [22]
He is currently collaborating with composer Mohammed Fairouz on an opera titled Bhutto. [23]
In 2018, he wrote a novel called Red Birds.[ citation needed ]
Hanif's style has often been compared with that of the author Salman Rushdie, although Hanif himself disagrees with this assessment. Once, to a question if he had grown up wanting to be a writer like Salman Rushdie, he said that while "[e]verybody of a certain age wanted to write like Rushdie and so did I", he would not want being "hunted around the world." [24]
In opposition to Pakistan's ongoing persecution of the Baloch people and police crackdown during a protest march in Islamabad on 20 December 2023, Mohammed Hanif has returned his "Sitara-e-Imtiaz" award. [25]
Hanif is married to the actress Nimra Bucha. [1]
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), The Man Booker Prize website. Retrieved 5 February 2012.