2023-24

Madri Kalugala, Sri Lanka

Madri Kalugala was born in Colombo but grew up in Brunei, until her family returned to Sri Lanka in 2001. She has been featured in newspapers for her children’s poetry, a genre that won her an Edward Lear Prize in 2017. Her first collection of adult poetry, An Almond Moon and The White Owl was published in 2016, followed by Exulansis, an experimental collection of poetry, prose and art, in 2021. Madri’s poetry and short fiction have been published in several anthologies, most recently in Out of Sri Lanka by Bloodaxe UK, and featured in numerous panels and creative writing forums. She is currently experimenting with longer prose forms and non-fiction, as well as writing and illustrating a children’s book.

Tara Joshi, UK

Tara Joshi is a London-based British-Indian freelance journalist. She was born in Mumbai, raised on the Isle of Wight and studied for an undergraduate degree in Ancient and Medieval History and Culture in Dublin. Professionally, Tara writes mainly about culture – her work has featured in the Guardian, Financial Times, New York Times, New Statesman, and Vogue. She was also the music editor at gal-dem magazine for four years, and co-edited the essay anthology Haramacy with Dhruva Balram in 2022 (Unbound). Tara is currently working on her first novel.

Shahriar Shaams, Bangladesh

Shahriar Shaams lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He has worked as a journalist since high school and has studied in Jahangirnagar University. His works have appeared in Six Seasons Review, Jamini, Singapore Unbound, Third Lane, The Hooghly Review, and The Daily Star’s literary pages, where he is a regular book critic. He occasionally dabbles in boxing and is nonfiction editor at Clinch, a martial-arts themed literary journal. Find him on twitter @shahriarshaams

Shaiq Ali, India

Shaiq Ali is Literature Research Scholar at Shiv Nadar University, New Delhi and an MA English graduate from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India. He is working on Muslim print cultures from South Asia and his creative writings have been published in The Seventh Wave Mag, The Nether Quarterly and The Sunflower Collective. He loves to rummage through second-hand book shops for rare gems.

Amy Hardingson, UK

Amy Hardingson (she/they) is a writer, poet and storyteller based in Totton, Hampshire. She writes across genres of historical fiction, fairytale, fantasy, and magical realism. They also explore the rich stories that come from their family history and lived experiences as a mixed-race, non-binary, bisexual person growing up in Southampton, and living and parenting in the New Forest. Amy is also fascinated by exploring themes of Belonging and Identity on a community level, running empowering writing workshops and facilitating community projects across the South of England. She also works on social and environmental activism projects locally in Totton and the New Forest area. You can read more about her work on her website.

Zehra Khan, Pakistan

Zehra Shabbir Khan is an undergraduate student of Fine Art from Karachi, Pakistan. She is majoring in 2D mediums of visual art. Her artistic interests lies in colonial and postcolonial studies, gender and sexuality. Zehra is also enamoured by love, both platonic and romantic, and love dictates her work as a writer. She has written one full-length stage-play, a folder full of poetry, enough stories to fill your pocket and she’s currently working on her first novel. And she reads whatever she can get her hands on. When she isn’t reading voraciously, she is writing, singing or playing with her cat, Garlic. You can find her writing on her website.

Safrah Fazal, Sri Lanka

Safrah Fazal is a journalist and content writer based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Having developed a fascination for words and stories at a young age, she stumbled upon the world of writing by accident in an attempt to stay afloat in life. Safrah also dedicates her time at social service organizations that support poverty-stricken and marginalized communities in her locality. The people she meets through her work inspire her narratives, which she hopes will help raise awareness of various social issues that are lesser-heard but matter nonetheless.

Omair Bin Nayyar, UK

Omair Bin Nayyar works as a parliamentary staffer for a Labour MP in the UK. Before moving to the UK, he was with The Economic Times in Bombay. His hometown is Lucknow, a city he has only lived in as a child and thereafter visited bi-annually during summer vacations and Eid. Omair’s writings focus on religion, politics and identity. Today, his words can be found in a few online journals, news websites, poetry showcases and speeches made in the House of Commons. He also enjoys writing and narrating stories for his nieces aged 2, 4 and 5. Omair believes in writing as an agent of discovery and expression of protest. He is currently working on a translation of political poems by his great-grandfather. You can read some of his writing on his website.

Nayab Malik, Pakistan

Nayab Malik is a fiction writer and digital storyteller based in Lahore, Pakistan. She graduated from Northwestern University with a BSc in Journalism and two Liberal Arts Awards to boot. Nayab has moved through 15 houses since she was a child. Her family always rented these spaces and hesitated to put down roots, making her feel permanently temporary. Her writing explores the notions of home, belonging, and diamond-dipped dreams with middle class paychecks. She is currently working on a collection of short stories and her first full-fledged novel in which she proudly uses the Oxford comma with complete abandon. When not writing, Nayab can be found reading tarot cards, interpreting natal charts, making collage art, or crocheting on Instagram: @nayabmalika

Zahra Mayeesha, Bangladesh

Zahra Mayeesha (they/she) is sheltered in the cramped, ever-dusted heart of Dhaka. They aspire to be a functional human being, and a writer on the side. Z.M. believes that reading and writing fiction is at the core of being a socially conscious citizen; that connecting about ideas through writing in community is our pathway to alchemical changes within our souls. One day, they hope to be the catalyst for the creation of a space where such transformative experiences are once again possible in Bangladesh. You can follow them on Instagram @nanni_ig.

Sudha Subramanian, India (UAE-based)

Sudha Subramanian is an independent writer of Indian origin living in Dubai. She is an amateur birder and a tree hugger. She loves a good chai and dreams of visiting 50 countries before she turns 51. Her words have found space in Bending Genres, West Trestle Review and National Flash Flood 2023 among others. Connect with her on X @sudhasubraman or on Instagram @sudha_subraman.

Nash Colundalur, UK

Nash Colundalur is a journalist, playwright and screenwriter. He won the Guardian International Development Journalism Award for reporting on the drought in Kenya. He was selected for the BBC, Writers Room, London Voices Program and is an alumnus of the University of East Anglia writers’ workshop in Kolkata, India. His play on the partition of India, The Trojan Horse staged at the Omnibus Theatre, London, won the Hammond House Publishing best stage play award. His radio play D is for Dwelling broadcast on BBC3 was nominated for the UK International Radio Drama Awards and featured at the Chigiana International Radio Festival Italy. One of his short stories has been featured in the 2022 Kitaab Best Asian Short Stories Anthology. His children’s picture books have been shortlisted for the Faber Fab prize. An excerpt from his unpublished novel Of Mothers and Mutiny won him the 2024 Limnisa Writing Residency in Greece and was shortlisted for the Book Edit Prize. Nash can be found on Twitter @nashcolundalur.

Mentees on Write Beyond Borders 2021-22