Letters From KARACHI
<i> A New Generation of Writers</i>
Life at this end has been overtaken by political turmoil, bomb blast and martial law, so it not exactly as if things have been particularly quiet. The major literary news was that this year Mohsin Hamid was shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize for his novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which I had written about earlier in May. Hamid is the first Pakistani author to have been on the shortlist and at 35, was also the youngest among this year's contenders.
Earlier, there was much excitement generated by a nationwide Young Writers Competition for poetry and prose organized by OUP, The Goethe Institute and the Heinrich Boll Foundation. The overall topic was 'Women in Pakistan'. Candidates between 18-30 were asked to write one of the three subjects: 'My First Love', 'My Aspirations' or 'My Mother, Me and My Daughter". Justice Nasira Iqbal was invited to be its patron.
The three judges, Dr. Amberina Kazi, Dr. Shaista Sirajuddin and journalist Ghazi Salahuddin sifted through some 600 entries, submitted anonymously, and met in Lahore to finalize the winners. The awards were announced at a ceremony in Karachi. Four of us were asked to read out the award-winning work which revealed a remarkably high standard. The first prize went to Meera Sethi for a fine and sensitive story of adult rivalry, a first love and an unwitting filial betrayal. The winners of the second and third prizes were for a poem by Sahar Rizvi and a story by Sadia Gardezi respectively--both rather accomplished works. There was also a Special Juror's Prize for Sadaf Halai's poem 'Laughter for the Living'. This was the poem that I was asked to read out at the function.
When it was sent to me, I was bowled over by it. I discovered the judges had been too, because it was so clearly much above the standard of most English poetry in Pakistan. The problem it posed for the judges was that it did not fit into any of the competition's stipulated subjects, but as Ghazi Salahuddin said to me "How could we not honour a work of such quality? Hence the idea of giving a Special Juror's Prize."
Halai's poem, which is reproduced here, revolves around three twentieth-century writers--the American poet, critic and Catholic monk, Thomas Merton (1915-1968), the French-Algerian novelist and communist Albert Camus (1913-1960) and the French philosopher and critic Roland Barthes (1915-1980). All three died in accidents. Merton was electrocuted. Camus was killed in a car accident; Barthes was run over by a laundry van after a meeting with the President. Halai's poem is also embedded with subtle references to other links between the three.
Now the top twenty competition winners will participate in a creative writing workshop in Lahore conducted by a German writer, Norman Ohler, and Pakistani academic and critic, Amra Raza, this month. These writings will then be published by OUP in collection which will be launched on International Women's Day--March 8, 2008.
Muniza Shamsie has edited three anthologies of Pakistani English writing. She is a regular contributor to Dawn newspaper, Newsline and She, The Journal of Commonwealth Literature and www. LitEncyc.com.
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