Shahnaz Bashir’s critically lauded debut novel The Half Mother won the Muse India Young Writer Award 2015. His short fiction, memoir essays, poetry and reportage have been anthologised or published in A Clutch of Indian Masterpieces: Extraordinary Short Stories from the 19th Century to the Present (Aleph Book Company, 2014); Of Occupation and Resistance — Writings from Kashmir  (Tranquebar, Westland, 2013); Growing Up Kashmiri (HarperCollins), Caravan, Himal Southasian, Fountain Ink, Kindle, The Byword, Kashmir Lit besides many others. Shahnaz teaches narrative journalism and conflict reporting at the Central University of Kashmir, Srinagar. He is a university gold medalist in journalism and was also awarded the prestigious Shamim Ahmad Shamim Kashmir Times Award 2007 in media studies. His second book, Scattered Souls, a collection of interlinked stories, was published by Fourth Estate (HarperCollins) in 2016. He is currently working on his third book. Bashir is a contributing editor at The Punch Magazine.