Aamer Hussein (born 8 April 1955,

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

) is a Pakistani critic Biography
Aamer Hussein official website. 2008. Retrieved 7 February 2011. and short story writer

Early life and education

Hussein grew up in Karachi, where he attended Lady Jennings School and the Convent of Jesus and Mary. He spent most summers with his mother's family in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. He studied in

Ooty Ooty (), officially known as Udhagamandalam (also known as Ootacamund (); abbreviated as Udhagai), is a city and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north west of Coimbatore and ...

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union terr ...

, for two years before moving to London in 1970. Hussein is fluent in seven languages: English,

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

, French, Italian, Spanish and Persian.

Career

He read Persian,

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury ...

(SOAS) in London, and later taught Urdu for many years at the SOAS Language Centre. He has since lectured in the English Department at

Queen Mary, University of London , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...

, was Director of the MA programme in National and International Literatures at the School of Advanced Study's Institute of English Studies (Senate House)(2005–08) and is now Professorial Writing Fellow at the University of Southampton, as well as a professorial research associate at the Centre for the Study of Pakistan. He has also held writing fellowships at the

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

and at

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

, and served as a judge for the Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation (2009),Judges of the 2009 Prize
, Banipal Trust for Arabic Literature. the Impac Prize (2008), the

Commonwealth Prize Commonwealth Writers (established in 2011) is the cultural initiative of the Commonwealth Foundation. It aims to inspire, develop and connect writers across the Commonwealth. Its flagship is a literary award for short stories, the Commonwealth Sh ...

(2007) and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (2002). He is a trustee of the magazine of international contemporary writing ''

Wasafiri ''Wasafiri'' is a quarterly British literary magazine covering international contemporary writing. Founded in 1984, the magazine derives its name from a Swahili word meaning "travellers" that is etymologically linked with the Arabic word " safa ...

''. Some of Hussein's earliest stories, such as "The Colour of a Loved Person's Eyes", "Little Tales", "Your Children" and "Karima", appeared in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the journals '' Critical Quarterly'' and ''Artrage'', and anthologies including '' Colours of a New Day: Writing for South Africa'' (Lawrence & Wishart, 1990), ''God: An Anthology of Fiction'' (Serpent's Tail, 1992) and ''Border Lines: Stories of Exile & Home'' (Serpent's Tail, 1994). His first collection of stories, ''Mirror to the Sun'', was published in 1993. Since then, to increasing critical acclaim from contemporaries such as

Shena Mackay Shena Mackay FRSL (born 1944) is a Scottish novelist born in Edinburgh. She was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1996 for '' The Orchard on Fire'', and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction in ...

, William Palmer, Mary Flanagan, Amit Chaudhuri and Tabish Khair, he has published four further collections – ''This Other Salt'' (1999), ''Turquoise'' (2002), ''Cactus Town'' (2003), and ''Insomnia'' (2007) – as well as the novella, ''Another Gulmohar Tree'' (2009) and the novel ''The Cloud Messenger'' (2011). He has also edited a volume of stories by Pakistani women, ''Kahani'' (2005), which includes his own translations from the Urdu of

Altaf Fatima Altaf Fatima ( ur, الطاف فاطمہ; 10 June 1927 – 29 November 2018) was a Pakistani Urdu novelist, short story writer, and teacher (specializing in Muhammad Iqbal). Altaf Fatima was born in Lucknow, she moved to Lahore during the P ...

, Khalida Hussain and Hijab Imtiaz Ali. He was made a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, ele ...

in 2004, "probably the first writer of Pakistani origin to be elected"."Aamer Hussein: A Tale of Two Languages"
, ''Dawn Newspaper'' (Pakistan), 7 October 2007. His reviews have appeared in the ''

Literary Review ''Literary Review'' is a British literary magazine founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at the University of Edinburgh. Its offices are on Lexington Street in Soho. The magazine was edited for fourteen years by v ...

'', ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

'', the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

'' and are now regularly seen on the book pages of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

''. He has also written essays on

Urdu literature Urdu literature ( ur, , ) is literature in the Urdu language. While it tends to be dominated by poetry, especially the verse forms of the ''ghazal '' غزل and '' nazm '' نظم, it has expanded into other styles of writing, including that of ...

for ''The Annual of Urdu Studies'' and ''Moving Worlds'', and in 2012 he published a selection of stories in Urdu in the Karachi journal ''Duniyazad''.

Selected bibliography

* ''This Other Salt'' (Saqi Books, 1999) * ''Turquoise'' (Saqi Books, 2002) * ''Insomnia'' (Telegram Books, 2007) * ''Another Gulmohar Tree'' (Telegram Books, 2009) * ''The Cloud Messenger'' (Telegram Books, 2011) * ''The Swan's Wife'' (ILQA, 2014; Repub. as ''37 Bridges'', HarperCollins, 2015)

References

External links

Podcast Interview With Hussein by André Naffis

Aamer Hussein official website.
* Aamer Hussein
"This Other Salt"
22 October 2005. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hussein, Aamer 1955 births Living people Pakistani male short story writers Pakistani short story writers British short story writers Alumni of SOAS University of London Academics of Queen Mary University of London Academics of the University of Southampton Academics of Imperial College London Academics of the School of Advanced Study Pakistani emigrants to the United Kingdom Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Writers from Karachi Pakistani expatriates in India