Kicking Up Dust

by Azra Abbas, Samina Rahman (Translator)

Overview

This book is a biography of the author and very skilfully presents a picture of her childhood, juxtaposing childish playfulness with the realities of the urban middle class she lived in. This prose is engrossing because it presents a child's frank and forthright perspective of the society she lives in. The curiosity of a rebellious child forced to survive in the adult world is an insight for the readers into the mind of child forced to grow up before her time. A number of the author's poems, also translated by Samina Rahman, are included in the volume as well.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199405503
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	04/22/2018
Pages:	142
Product dimensions:	5.76(w) x 8.87(h) x 0.58(d)

About the Author

Azra Abbas,Samina Rahman

Azra Abbas writes poetry in Urdu. After earning her Master's degree in Urdu at Karachi University, she taught Urdu Literature at a college. In 1981, she published an extended prose poem, Neend ki Musafatain, in the stream-of-consciousness style. Since then, she has published four collections of poetry, her memoirs, a compilation of short stories, and a novel. The writer currently lives in Karachi with her husband, the poet and novelist, Anwer Sen Roy.

Samina Rahman studied English Literature and Politics at the Universities of Punjab and Cambridge respectively. She taught at the Quaid-i-Azam University and University of the Punjab before getting together with a group of like-minded women to establish Lahore Grammar School in 1979, where she still works. She is also a founding member of Women's Action Forum (WAF), and has sat on the boards of numerous educational and women's rights organizations including Society for the Advancement of Education (SAHE), Aurat Foundation, Dastak, and Simorgh. Ms Rahman has written on education, literature, history, and women's issues. Her English translations of Urdu fiction and poetry have been published in various anthologies at home and abroad.

Table of Contents

Translator's Note
Introduction
Part One
My Childhood
Part Two
Poems
1. Burden
2. It is so Difficult to Remove the Grime
3. Where Are You Taking Me
4. It is Difficult to Write a Poem
5. Bitch
6. Untie My Hands
7. Forgetting the Desires of the Night
8. When the Whole Day Goes By
9. Before Exile
10. Ennui
11. Where am I
12. This Work I'm Doing
13. After Your Arrival
14. Self Portrait
15. On the Table
16. In Exchange for this Life
17. Confession
18. My Shadow
19. A Poem
20. Cycle of Fate
21. This Heart Will Not Accept
22. Life in Pieces