Shah Tazrian Ashrafi, Bangladesh

Shah Tazrian Ashrafi is a second-year undergraduate student of International Relations.  He lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh. When he’s not reading, he’s desperately thinking about honing his fiction writing skills. His written works (essays, reportage, book reviews, short stories, and poetry) appear in TRT World, The Diplomat, Caravan, Himal Southasian, The Bombay Review, Critical Muslim, The Aleph Review, Kitaab, Dhaka Tribune, The Metaworker, and The Daily Star.

Aisha Hamid, Pakistan

Aisha Hamid is a feminist writer and poet based in Lahore, Pakistan. She graduated from the University of Warwick with an MA in Gender and International Development and is a Commonwealth Scholar. Her academic and creative writing both revolve around Pakistani women’s agency and the multiple meanings it comes to hold for them. As a woman living and writing in a deeply patriarchal space, she regards her writing as activism. She was shortlisted for the inaugural Zeenat Haroon Rashid Writing Prize for Women, 2019. She was also selected for the residential LUMS Young Writers Workshop, 2019. Her short story, ‘How (Not) to Leave’, received an honorable mention by The Berlin Writing Prize, 2019. Her poetry has been published by Vallum Magazine, Rare Swan Press and The Aleph Review. Her non-fiction essays are forthcoming in Folio Books. She is currently working on her debut book of fiction. Aisha can be found on Instagram @_aisha.hamid_

Tanvi Srivastava, India

Tanvi Srivastava is a graduate in English Literature from Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi, with a postgraduate degree in Experimental Media Arts. She is the co-founder of Chalo Africa, a travel firm that specialises in African safaris. Tanvi is passionate about writing fiction and has published short stories in online magazines (PureSlush, New Anthology of Asian Writing) as well as in print (The Reading Hour and An Anthology of Goan Short Stories). She is currently working on a thriller set in Bangladesh in 2009. On the personal front, she lives in Bangalore with her husband and two children, aged 1 and 3. She is slowly toddling back to her writing life while surviving the dual challenges of parenthood and the pandemic. You can follow Tanvi on Twitter @tanvisrivastava

Ulka Karandikar, UK

Ulka Karandikar spent her early childhood living across three different continents, moving between exotic locations such as Dar-es-Salaam, Mumbai, and Merthyr Tydfil. Eventually, her parents settled in the West Midlands, but she did not stay still for long. At the moment she lives and works in London, writing whenever she can. Ulka’s work-in-progress was shortlisted for the Owned Voices Novel Award, 2021 and longlisted for the SI Leeds Literary Prize, 2020. You can find her on Twitter @ulkakarandikar

Moachiba Jamir, India

Moachiba Jamir is an alumnus of the IWP, Summer Institute from the University of Iowa. His writings mostly focus upon the lived realities of Nagas in relation with themselves as well as with the rest of the world. His works can be found in places like Inverted Syntax and Olio: Obscure writings from Nagaland. He lives in Kohima, Nagaland and is currently an undergraduate at EFLU, Hyderabad.Moachiba can be found on Instagram @moachi_moshi

Ishrat Jahan, Bangladesh

Ishrat Jahan is an early-stage researcher in public health based in Dhaka, Bangladesh where she focuses on issues of gender performativity, the patriarchal gaze and women’s health. She has written feature pieces, essays, op-eds and fiction for local newspapers (Dhaka Tribune and Daily Star) and is a regular contributor for the Daily Star book reviews section. In 2017, she contributed to a locally published anthology Disconnect, which featured the work of a young community of Bangladeshi writers. She has also worked as a contributing writer for a children’s story book project Her Stories: Volume 1, a collection of bedtime stories on inspirational Bangladeshi women figures. In terms of creative writing pursuits, Ishrat finds joy in crafting short prose which explore concepts of memories, families or simply trace ambiguities of thoughts and feelings. She writes with the hope that in transcribing what one feels inside she may help others recognize the words for those feelings in themselves. You can follow Ishrat on Twitter @jahan1620

Maham Khalid, Pakistan

Maham Khalid is a medical student based In Karachi, Pakistan. She is a member of online writer’s collective Nosebleed Club and has published poetry in several small zines including Luna Rio Zine, Soliloquie Magazine, and Berry Magazine. She also writes short stories. Her work aims to articulate emotions such as dread, discomfort, fear, and loneliness. To her, the words ‘write’ and ‘peel’ are synonymous. You can find Maham on Instagram @duskmaya

Megha Nayar, India

Megha Nayar is a communications coach and fiction writer from Ahmedabad, India. She teaches English and French, and is currently learning Spanish to add to her repertoire. When not working with languages, she writes short stories that help her make sense of the world and seek her place in it. Megha was longlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize, 2020. One of her stories was recently showcased at India’s Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. Her writing has featured in 30+ magazines over the past year, including Bengaluru Review, Out of Print and Gulmohur Quarterly, among others. Megha has spent the first half of 2021 in a Himalayan hamlet, chasing inspiration as she pens her first novella. She is grateful to have lived amidst hills, streams, trees and dogs during the pandemic, and hopes to be a permanent mountain-dweller some day. She can be found on Twitter @meghasnatter

Nina Duttaroy, UK

Nina Duttaroy is passionate about storytelling and telling hidden stories. She studied English and later Information Technology at University of London. She has written and directed award winning documentaries, which have been supported by Film London and B3 Media. Her writing has been shortlisted for the Penguin WriteNow scheme, longlisted for The Literary Consultancy Pen Factor competition and she was selected for a Spread the Word London Writers Award. She is currently writing her debut crime novel set in India.

Eshna Sharma, India

Eshna Sharma is an emerging writer, poet and student from Lucknow, India. She is the winner of the Wingword Poetry Prize, 2019. She is the author of a chapbook, Girlhood (2020), and the self-published The Beetles in the Walls (2019). Her poems have been published in The Alipore Post and Spacebar Mag. She has previously been selected for the Ashoka Creative Writing Summer School, and a Literature Across Frontiers workshop where she received instruction under Icelandic writer Sigurbjörg Þrastardóttir. Eshna can be found on Twitter and Instagram @poeticpermit