I am writer, translator, teacher, and filmmaker. I grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, and live in Minneapolis, USA. I did my undergrad at Mount Holyoke College in Western Mass, USA, during which I spent a year away from college to live in Nepal and Morocco. That one year away from college, from institution, from home or scaffolding of any kind, shapes by practice and worldview to this day.
I was a journalist at first. I have been a reporter at The Kathmandu Post, a desk editor at Dawn.com, a reportage editor for Papercuts Magazine, and an investigative journalist at The Herald.
My fiction and nonfiction is often about gender and cities; poetry and devotion; and grief and God. I also write about film, and am an alum of the Locarno Critics Academy and the Berlinale Talents Press.
I spend a lot of my time thinking about the relationship between public and private spaces, land and devotion, poetry, dreams, sacred texts. I am interested in the intersection of faith and politics, literature and history, and land and displacement. I translate sometimes, and love collaborating always.
My friend Ahmed and I started Amrit Pyala in 2023: we are recording, filming, and translating Sufi and Bhakti kalaams in Pakistan.
My favourite things in the world are qavvalis, cats, cycling, and the sea.
You can reach me via:
email [email protected]
instagram @saraswatibythesea
Follow my substack:
Upcoming workshops here.