Books by Bilal Tanweer
Love in Chakiwara and Other Misadventures by Muhammad Khalid Aktar (translation), 2016
A small Karachi neighbourhood, Chakiwara is humdrum and unspectacular to all appearances. But ins... more A small Karachi neighbourhood, Chakiwara is humdrum and unspectacular to all appearances. But inside its shops and at the street corners, there is curious business afoot.
Chronicling the drama that unfolds daily is Iqbal Hussain Changezi, bakery owner and collector of writers and geniuses. He has his eyes on out-of-work comedian Chakori, apprentice to a Chinese dentist, even as the town's mostly unsuccessful healer of physical and spiritual maladies prepares to unleash his top-secret invention, the love meter.
Muhammad Khalid Akhtar presents a world at once familiar and peculiar but always surprising, his unforgettable characters keeping alive the old ways in a quietly changing Karachi in post-independence Pakistan. Love in Chakiwara and Other Misadventures is a true testament to the wit, sagacity and quiet brilliance of one of the greatest storytellers of his time.
Newspaper articles by Bilal Tanweer
It says something about us that the only legitimate or accepted reason we allow for people to eva... more It says something about us that the only legitimate or accepted reason we allow for people to evade borders is economic necessity.
Schloss Post
Why write poems, novels, or literature at all? What makes a person want to become a writer? Vienn... more Why write poems, novels, or literature at all? What makes a person want to become a writer? Vienna-based writer Alice Miller and Pakistani author and translator Bilal Tanweer met at Solitude and encountered each other’s work, on the one hand Tanweer’s first novel The Scatter Here Is Too Great and on the other Miller’s The Limits. Afterwards, they discussed the urgency of writing via the seemingly outdated form of the letter. What may appear slower or less dynamic than our newer forms of communication, actually reveals the potential to test out complex thoughts. Isn’t that what writing actually is for?
The militarization of Lahore isn’t making residents feel much safer and further marginalizes the ... more The militarization of Lahore isn’t making residents feel much safer and further marginalizes the poor.
Book Reviews by Bilal Tanweer
Sehbai’s poetic project lies in the exploration of the self and the world through the vitality of... more Sehbai’s poetic project lies in the exploration of the self and the world through the vitality of human touch— ātish-e lams sē gul hai varnā / khāk sē naqsh ubhartē kaisē? This is the beating heart of his originality. Reading his newest collection of verse, one feels coming into contact with an exuberance that is markedly absent from our daily discourse, and even literature.
Papers by Bilal Tanweer
International Affairs, 2015
The MFA mode of reading – acontextual, ahistorical, actively seeking to represent works of art as... more The MFA mode of reading – acontextual, ahistorical, actively seeking to represent works of art as products of technical and linguistic virtuosity, where the merit of a good work lies primarily in the novelty of its technique – works against producing writers who draw a broader circle around themselves than mere individual consciousness.
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Books by Bilal Tanweer
Chronicling the drama that unfolds daily is Iqbal Hussain Changezi, bakery owner and collector of writers and geniuses. He has his eyes on out-of-work comedian Chakori, apprentice to a Chinese dentist, even as the town's mostly unsuccessful healer of physical and spiritual maladies prepares to unleash his top-secret invention, the love meter.
Muhammad Khalid Akhtar presents a world at once familiar and peculiar but always surprising, his unforgettable characters keeping alive the old ways in a quietly changing Karachi in post-independence Pakistan. Love in Chakiwara and Other Misadventures is a true testament to the wit, sagacity and quiet brilliance of one of the greatest storytellers of his time.
Newspaper articles by Bilal Tanweer
Book Reviews by Bilal Tanweer
Papers by Bilal Tanweer
Chronicling the drama that unfolds daily is Iqbal Hussain Changezi, bakery owner and collector of writers and geniuses. He has his eyes on out-of-work comedian Chakori, apprentice to a Chinese dentist, even as the town's mostly unsuccessful healer of physical and spiritual maladies prepares to unleash his top-secret invention, the love meter.
Muhammad Khalid Akhtar presents a world at once familiar and peculiar but always surprising, his unforgettable characters keeping alive the old ways in a quietly changing Karachi in post-independence Pakistan. Love in Chakiwara and Other Misadventures is a true testament to the wit, sagacity and quiet brilliance of one of the greatest storytellers of his time.