Role
Chair
Title
2014 & 2020 Dhahan Prize Finalist
Region
Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Zubair Ahmad grew up in an old neighborhood of Mohalla Krishan Nagar in Lahore. His ancestors originate from pre-partition Batala, District Gurdaspur, Punjab. In 1984 he completed an MA in English from the University of the Punjab, Lahore, followed by a Post Graduate Diploma in English Language Teaching in 1991. He retired in 2018 as an Associate Professor of English Literature from the Old Islamia College. He has been an enthusiastic proponent for Punjabi language, literature, and culture in Pakistan.
He has authored three fine short story collections – Meenh Boohay te Barrian, Kabootar Banarey Te Galian and Panni Di Kandh; a book of poetry Dumm Yaad Na Keeta; and a book of literary criticism Sahitak Alochana Vichar Lekh. In 2014 Kabootar Banerey Te Galian received the best Punjabi fiction award of the year in Pakistan by the Khardarposh Trust. The same book received the inaugural Dhahan Prize in the Shahmukhi script. Pani Di Kandh garnered the 2020 Dhahan Prize Finalist Award.
A selection of Ahmad’s Punjabi stories translated by Anne Murphy and published in 2022 by Athabasca University Press, Canada titled ‘Grieving for Pigeons: Twelve Stories of Lahore.‘ Pakistani edition was published by Readings, Lahore, one of the largest online resources in Pakistan.
In 1997 he founded Kitab Trinjan, the first exclusive non-commercial, non-profit Punjabi bookshop in Lahore and operated it until 2009. Ten years later Kitab Trinjan was re-opened. He was instrumental in starting the first Punjabi school in Lahore in 1984. He now publishes and edits an annual magazine Baran Maah with England based writer Amarjit Chandan. His literary journey is profoundly rooted in his childhood experiences. He says, “Listening daily to my mother’s pre-partition stories, I was subconsciously born a writer. I dug that writer, found it, and started authoring stories that covered my life, the people, the surroundings, and the city of Lahore. Lahore is in me, and I am in Lahore.”
