Bina Shah is a writer of English fiction and a journalist living in Karachi, Pakistan. She is the author of four novels and two collections of short stories. She is a regular columnist for the International New York Times, the Dawn, the Huffington Post, Al Jazeera, and has written for the Independent and the Guardian. Her fiction and non fiction essays have been published in Granta, Wasafiri, the Istanbul Review, Bengal Lights, Asian Cha, and Critical Muslim.

Shah’s first book, a volume of short stories called Animal Medicine, was published in 2000. Her first novel, Where They Dream in Blue, was published by Alhamra in 2001. A second novel, ‘The 786 Cybercafé’ was published by Alhamra in 2004. In 2005, “The Optimist”, a short story written by Bina was published in an anthology called And the World Changed (Women Unlimited/OUP); an essay called “A Love Affair with Lahore” was published in an anthology edited by Bapsi Sidhwa called City of Sin and Splendour – Writings on Lahore (Penguin India – Pakistani title Beloved City – OUP). In 2007 Alhamra published her second collection of short stories, Blessings.
Shah’s third novel ‘Slum Child’ was published in India by Tranquebar, an imprint of Westland-Tata, in 2010. An Italian-language version was also published in Italy by Newton Compton in 2009 under the title La Bambina Che Non Poteva Sognare, where it reached number 3 on the paperback bestseller list,[3] and sold over 20,000 copies. It was published in Spanish by Grijalbo, an imprint of Random House Mondadori, in June 2011.

Shah’s fourth novel, A Season For Martyrs, was published by Delphinium Books (November 2014) to critical acclaim. It was also published in Italy by Newton Compton as Il Bambino Che Credeva Nella Liberta in 2010. For this novel, Shah was awarded the Premio Internazionale in the Un Mondi di Bambini category of the Almalfi Coast Literary Festival in 2010 for translated fiction.