Mazhar ul Islam

Mazhar ul Islam (Urdu: مظہرالاسلام‎) (born 4 August 1949) is a Pakistani short story writer and novelist. His short stories weave together themes of love, pain, ecstasy, separation and death.^[1]

Biography

The story of Mazhar ul Islam’s life may be resumed from the summary biography he presents on the covers of his books. He was born on 4 August 1949, almost exactly two years after the creation of Pakistan, in a village near Khanewal in the southern Punjab where his father had then been posted by the Forestry Department for which he worked. After his father’s death in 1967, he moved to Islamabad.

Mazhar ul Islam, a writer and folklorist, is an original voice to emerge in contemporary Pakistan. His short stories reflect a new trend in Urdu prose. Deeply influenced by the 'magical realism' of South American writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, he has consciously imitated and introduced this style in his native language with some additional symbolism of his own.^[2] His works have been translated into Italian, Chinese, Japanese, English, and several local and regional Pakistani languages. Mazhar ul Islam has also served previously as Director General of the Pakistan Academy of Letters, as Executive Director of Lok Virsa and the Managing Director of the National Book Foundation. He has been awarded the President’s Pride of Performance for Literature and a medal for Revival of Folk Studies.

Publications

• Mohabbat Murda Pholon ki Symphany ^[3]
• La stagione dell’amore,delle mandorle amare e delle piogge tarde ^[4] (Italian translation)
• Mein, aap aur woh (You, him and I)
• Baton ki barish mein bhegti larki (A girl showering in the rain of words)
• Khat mein post ki huee dopeher (An afternoon posted in a letter)
• The season of love, bitter almonds and delayed rains
• Ghoron ke sheher mein akela aadmi (A lonely man in the city of horses)
• Gurrya ki aankh se sheher ko dekho (Look at the city with the eye of a doll)
• Ay Khuda (O God)

References