Birth—
Where—Lahore
Education—West Virginia University
Master’s degree, Creative Writing
Currently—Virginia and Lahore

Bibliography

• Ashes, Wine and Dust (2015)

She was a fellow at University of Massachusetts, studying Comparative Public Policy, in 2011 and an American Literature research scholar at Arizona State University in 2015 with Pakistani Immigrant writing being her primary field of research. She is currently a graduate student at West Virginia University.

At just 16, Pakistani author Kanza Javed was confronting death and its devastating after-effects. “The idea of Ashes, Wine And Dust came to me after I lost my grandmother and realised how pervasive and still sadness is. I had to write down everything I witnessed and felt”. Javed spent the next few years developing the interior life of her protagonist, a young Pakistani girl grappling with grown-up themes of displacement, isolation and identity. At 21, she was shortlisted for the prestigious Tibor Jones South Asia Prize (2013), awarded to promising work-in-progress manuscripts.

In November 2015 Kanza Javed scheduled to launch her debut novel at the ongoing Kumaon literary festival in India but was denied a visa to enter the country at the eleventh hour.

Ashes, Wine and Dust (2015)
Ashes, Wine and Dust is the debut novel of Kanza Javed, which was shortlisted for Tibor Jones South Asia Prize 2013, making her the youngest and the only Pakistani writer nominated for the prize that year.