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Uzma Jalaluddin | |
|---|---|
 Uzma Jalaluddin signs her novel, Ayesha At Last | |
| Born | 1980 (age 43–44) [1] |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Occupation(s) | writer, teacher |
Uzma Jalaluddin is a Canadian writer and teacher, known for her 2018 debut novel Ayesha At Last.
Jalaluddin writes a column for the Toronto Star . [2] [3] [4] She is also a high school teacher, an occupation she shares with the protagonist of her first novel. During an interview, her friend, fellow novelist, Ausma Zehanat Khan described their writing circle, which she called the Sisterhood of the Pen, that include Jalaluddin and S.K. Ali. [5] The trio of friends offer one another valuable advice, when they read one another's early drafts.
Jalaluddin described loving reading, and always wanting to write, but finding it hard to find novels about people who looked like her, and deciding to write one herself. [6] Jalaluddin had begun the novel when she was pregnant with her son Ibrahim, but only decided to finish the novel after telling seven-year-old Ibrahim about it.
In 2017 Jalaluddin was one of several women the Toronto Star interviewed, for their opinions on feminism and the future. [1]
The popularity of Crazy Rich Asians , earlier in 2018, is said to have triggered a greater interest in Hollywood acquiring other novels from writers with an Asian background. [7] [8] [9] The film rights to Ayesha At Last were acquired by Amy Pascal's production company, Pascal Pictures. [10] [11] [12] Pascal Pictures acquired the rights in August 2018, less than four months after the novel's Canadian and UK debut.
Ayesha At Last was listed for the Toronto Book Awards, and was shortlisted for the 2019 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, and longlisted for the Stephen Leacock Humour Award. [13] [14] [15] [16] Hearst UK announces a Big Book Award, with each of its major publications naming one title. [17] The novel has been favourably compared with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice . [1] [18] [2] [19] [20] Cosmopolitan UK named Ayesha At Last as its 2019 choice, stating it is 'a clever homage to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice that you'll love, even if you never got round to reading the original'.
In December 2019 Bustle asked noteworthy authors of first novels to recommend their favourite novels of 2019. [21] They selected Jalauddin, who recommended A Deadly Divide , a police procedural from her friend Ausma Zehanat Khan.
Her second novel, Hana Khan Carries On, was published in June 2021. [22] [23] The novel is about a rivalry between two competing halal restaurants.
Pride and Prejudice is the second novel by English author Jane Austen, published in 1813. A novel of manners, it follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the protagonist of the book, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.
Bridget Rose Jones is a fictional character created by British writer Helen Fielding. Jones first appeared in Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary column in The Independent in 1995, which did not carry any byline. Thus, it seemed to be an actual personal diary chronicling the life of Jones as a thirtysomething single woman in London as she tries to make sense of life, love, and relationships with the help of a surrogate "urban family" of friends in the 1990s. The column was, in fact, a lampoon of women's obsession with love, marriage and romance as well as women's magazines such as Cosmopolitan and wider social trends in Britain at the time. Fielding published the novelisation of the column in 1996, followed by a sequel in 1999 called The Edge of Reason.
Pride & Prejudice is a 2005 historical romantic drama film directed by Joe Wright, in his feature directorial debut, and based on Jane Austen's 1813 novel of the same name. The film features five sisters from an English family of landed gentry as they deal with issues of marriage, morality and misconceptions. Keira Knightley stars as Elizabeth Bennet, while Matthew Macfadyen plays Mr Darcy who falls in love with her.
Pride & Prejudice is the soundtrack to the 2005 film of the same name and was composed by Dario Marianelli and performed by Jean-Yves Thibaudet (piano) and the English Chamber Orchestra. The movie Pride & Prejudice is a screen adaptation of the 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
Zarqa Nawaz is a Canadian creator and producer for film and television, a published author, public speaker, journalist, and former broadcaster.
The author Jane Austen and her works have been represented in popular culture in a variety of forms.
Muslim Girl Magazine was a bi-monthly fashion, beauty, and lifestyle publication marketed for young Muslim women. The magazine was first published in January 2007. It was published by Toronto's ExecuGo Media, and offered style advice, articles on movies and music and general advice, but with a grounding in Islamic issues and with features on Muslim personalities, countries, and cultures. The headquarters was in Toronto, though the magazine's reach was international during its two years of publishing.
Bernie Su is an American web series creator, writer, director and producer. He is best known for his work on the Emmy Award-winning web series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries with Hank Green, a modern vlog-style adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice which won YouTube's first primetime Emmy. His five-platform interactive re-imagination of Austen's Emma, called Emma Approved, won the same Emmy two years later. Su also worked on Vanity, was Multi-channel network StyleHaul's first original online series, with Maybelline New York attached as the exclusive sponsor for its centennial celebration.
Ausma Zehanat Khan is an American-Canadian novelist and author of crime and fantasy novels.
Soniah Kamal is a Pakistani-American writer. She is the author of two novels, An Isolated Incident (2014) and Unmarriageable (2019). The latter is a retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice set in Pakistan in 2000 and 2001.
Sajidah "S.K." Ali is an Indian-Canadian author of adult's book, best known for her Asian/Pacific American Award-winning debut young adult novel Saints & Misfits, about Janna Yousuf, an Indian-American hijabsi who grapples with getting sexually assaulted by a friend's cousin from her local mosque.
Ali Bryan is a Canadian novelist, and personal trainer. Her second novel, The Figgs, was shortlisted for the 2019 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.
The Kobo Emerging Writer Prize is a Canadian literary award, presented since 2015 by online e-book and audiobook retailer and eReader manufacturer Rakuten Kobo.
Tyler Hellard is a Canadian writer, whose debut novel Searching for Terry Punchout was shortlisted for the Amazon.ca First Novel Award and the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize in 2019.
The Unquiet Dead is a 2015 novel by Canadian author Ausma Zehanat Khan. It is the first novel in the Rachel Ghetty and Esa Khattak series, and is followed by The Language of Secrets (2016), Among the Ruins (2017), A Death in Sarajevo (2017) (novella), A Dangerous Crossing (2018) and A Deadly Divide (2019). The novel follows Canadian detectives as they investigate the death of Christopher Drayton, which transforms into a complex portrayal of war crimes, grief and injustice. The Unquiet Dead was awarded the Arthur Ellis Award and Barry Award for "best first novel" in 2016, and was nominated for an Edgar Award.
Sahar Jahani is an American writer, known for working on several popular television series, including 13 Reasons Why, and Ramy. In 2020 she was hired to write an adaptation of Uzma Jalaluddin's novel Hana Khan Carries On for Pascal Pictures.
Pride and Prejudice* is a play by Isobel McArthur, with songs, based on Jane Austen's novel. The play is designed for a cast of five or six women, each playing a servant and several of the main characters. After an initial production in Scotland in 2018 and a tour in 2019–20, it opened in the West End in 2021 and toured again in 2022–23. The production won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play.
Five Little Indians is the debut novel by Cree Canadian writer Michelle Good, published in 2020 by Harper Perennial. The novel focuses on five survivors of the Canadian Indian residential school system, struggling to rebuild their lives in Vancouver, British Columbia after the end of their time in the residential schools. It also explores the love and strength that can emerge after trauma.
This Being Human is an interview podcast hosted by Abdul-Rehman Malik that focuses on Muslim art and culture. The podcast was created by the Aga Khan Museum and produced by Antica Productions.
Instead of being exclusionary, now is the time to welcome and celebrate what we all bring to this movement. The idea of not discounting people who don't look like us or talk like us is so important, especially in Toronto.
Uzma Jalaluddin, a high school teacher, writes Samosas and Maple Syrup, a regular column about modern Muslim life for the Toronto Star. She's also been a guest on the TV show Cityline, speaking on the Muslim experience.
One of the biggest things that happened in my life was I had a great opportunity to write a parenting column for the Toronto Star. What that did was give me the discipline of deadlines. I had to write a new 700 word column every two weeks — it had to be edited, polished and ready for publication.
Ayesha At Last's Muslim characters are a far cry from the stereotypes we often come across. There are no gun-wielding terrorists in this debut novel by Uzma Jallaluddin. Instead the author's characters are real, believable people.
I also have a little writing circle. We jokingly call ourselves the Sisterhood of the Pen. (We've also tried out the name #blahblahplot). Uzma Jalaluddin and S. K. Ali share useful career advice, Uzma reads my work as I go along and helps me figure out what's working and what isn't, and we just generally enjoy each other's company and love chatting about writing.
My first attempt at writing was a picture book titled Icy Water's Bad Day. It was about the life cycle of an ice cube. By the end of the book, Icy Water is melting in someone's stomach, so actually it may have been a dark comedy about existential despair. I wrote it when I was 8, so I can't be certain.
Jalaluddin's novel has been described as a Muslim take on Pride and Prejudice, as Hollywood looks for the next big racially diverse comedy in the wake of Crazy Rich Asians.
The film rights to Uzma Jalaluddin's young adult novel Ayesha at Last have been sold to Pascal Pictures, the production company behind blockbusters like the Ghostbusters reboot, Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Post and Molly's Game, Deadline reports.
Pascal Pictures, founded by Amy Pascal, has just optioned "Ayesha at Last", a modern Muslim Canadian retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice published by HarperCollins Canada.
The novel was shopped as interest swelled in Crazy Rich Asians, and it was helped by an appetite to tell a fun story focused on historically underrepresented characters.
In the wake of Crazy Rich Asians decimating box office records, Amy Pascal's Pascal Pictures has optioned the rights to Ayesha At Last, a novel by Uzma Jalaluddin
Ayesha at Last debuted in Canada last year and has already been optioned for a film adaptation by former Sony exec Amy Pascal's Pascal Pictures.
Other shortlisted titles include the memoir Son of a Critch by comedian Mark Critch and Ayesha At Last by Uzma Jalaluddin, which is a finalist in the romance category.
The board of directors of the Stephen Leacock Associates announced its 2019 longlist for the 72nd Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour today.
The Kobo Emerging Writer Prize has been an ongoing thing for the past five years.
The Toronto Book Awards have announced the 12 titles which have made the 2019 longlist.
Cosmopolitan described Ayesha at Last as 'a clever homage to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice that you'll love, even if you never got round to reading the original'.
Sometimes I wake up at dawn and write. Sometimes I run around last minute because I'm late for everything. Some weeks, I feel like I can do this, wear all the hats all the time. Other times, I catch a stress cold and want to run away somewhere warm, like my furnace room. I know I have high expectations for myself, the kind that are hard to reach, which means that I also have to forgive myself when I fall short.
Set in a tight-knit Muslim community in Toronto, Uzma Jalaluddin's debut novel Ayesha at Last is a love story in the vein of Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice. Ayesha, a teacher who dreams of being a poet, belongs to a rambunctious family and is surprised when she finds herself attracted to a traditional, conservative young man named Khalid.
From the author of Ayesha at Last comes a sparkling new rom-com for fans of "You've Got Mail," set in two competing halal restaurants.
Sales are slow at Three Sisters Biryani Poutine, the only halal restaurant in the close-knit Golden Crescent neighbourhood. Hana waitresses there part time, but what she really wants is to tell stories on the radio.
Media related to Uzma Jalaluddin at Wikimedia Commons
Quotations related to Uzma Jalaluddin at Wikiquote| International | |
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