Sorayya Y. Khan
sorayyakhan@gmail.com
www.sorayyakhan.com
PUBLICATIONS
Novels
CITY OF SPIES, Aleph Book Company, 2015 (represented by Bill Contardi, Brandt and
Hochman Literary Agency)
During a time of political upheaval and growing anti-American sentiment in late
1970’s Islamabad, Pakistan, this portrait of a family and coming-of-age story
explores conflicting identities and loyalties.
FIVE QUEEN’S ROAD, Penguin India, 2009
Weaving together family saga, memoir, and national history, the narrative is set
in Lahore, Pakistan and considers the effects of World War II and the
Subcontinent’s 1947 Partition on one family.
NOOR, Penguin India, 2004
University of North Carolina Wilmington Publishing Lab, 2006
Alhamra Publishing, Pakistan, 2003
Set in Islamabad, Pakistan, the novel examines the residue of the 1971 war
between East and West Pakistan and, in particular, the complicated relationship
involving the war, one soldier, and his family.
Essays
The Silence and Forgetting that Wrote NOOR, Journal of Narrative Politics, March 2015.
Silence and Forgetting, PROTHOM ALO (daily Bangla newspaper), Dhaka, Bangladesh,
December 16, 2012.
The Sound of Conversation, in Autobiographical International Relations: I, IR, edited by
Naeem Inayatullah, Routledge Press (London, UK), December 2010.
A Topography of Banda Aceh: Notes from a Journey, Finger Lakes Environmental Film
Festival Catalog (Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY), 2008.
Letter from Pakistan: Being Home, 1999 in Pakistani Writing in English edited by Shafiq
Naz, Alhamra Publishing (Islamabad, Pakistan), June 2005.
Sorayya Y. Khan / Page 2
Literary Quarterlies
Five Queen’s Road, Asian Pacific American Journal (The Asian American Writers
Workshop, New York), Spring/Summer, 1997.
In the Shadows of the Margalla Hills, (Winner of the Malahat Review’s First Novella
Prize), The Malahat Review (University of Victoria, BC), Spring 1995.
The Color of the Lahore Sky, The Kenyon Review (Kenyon College, OH), Spring 1995.
The Bathroom, North American Review (University of Northern Iowa, IO), Spring 1991.
Anthologies
Staying, And The World Changed: Pakistani Women’s Writing edited by Muneeza
Shamsie, Feminist Press, (CUNY, New York), October 2008, and Women Unlimited
Press (Delhi, India), September 2005.
Janoo’s Farewell, Neither Night Nor Day: 13 Stories by Women Writers from Pakistan,
edited by Rakhshanda Jalil, Harper Collins (Delhi, India), October 2007.
The Beginning of Five Queen’s Road, City of Sin and Splendour: Writings on Lahore
edited by Bapsi Sidhwa, Penguin India (Delhi, India) and Oxford University Press
(Karachi, Pakistan), October 2005.
The Buffalo, in Letter from India edited by Moazzam Sheikh, Penguin India (Delhi, India),
February 2003.
The Color of the Lahore Sky in Leaving Home: Towards a New Millennium edited by
Muneeza Shamsie, Oxford University Press (Karachi, Pakistan), 2001.
In the Shadows of the Margalla Hills (excerpt) in Dragonfly in the Sun: An Anthology of
Pakistani Writing in English, edited by Muneeza Shamsie, Oxford University Press
(Karachi, Pakistan), September 1997.
Reviews of My Novels
Newspapers: India Today, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, Indian Express, The Tribune,
Deccan Herald, Friday Times, The Tribune, Organizer, The Telegraph, The Daily Star, New
Indian Express, Dawn. Magazines: She Magazine, Newsline, Outlook, Tehelka
Magazine, New Woman Magazine, Sunday Mid Day, First City, Himal Southasian. Online (selected): SAWNET, DesiLit, Desi Journal, Curious Book Fans.
Sorayya Y. Khan / Page 3
HONORS
Constance Saltonstall Artist Grant in Creative Non-Fiction, 2006.
The project considered the relationship between trauma, memory,
and loss in Banda Aceh among tsunami and conflict survivors.
U.S. Fulbright Research Scholar, 1999-2000, in Middle East, North Africa, South Asia
Regional Program. Field: Creative Writing.
The project explored partitions of the subcontinent by focusing on how
individuals mediate post-conflict reconciliation. It entailed research on
partitioning in Bangladesh and Pakistan in 1947 and 1971.
Winner, The Malahat Review’s Novella Prize, 1995
In the Shadows of the Margalla Hills won the competition at the University of
Victoria, BC. The panel of judges included Jane Urquhart, Michael Kenyon, and
Jack Hodgins.
Recipient, University of Denver Merit Based Fellowships for Graduate Study
National Science Foundation Fellowship, 1984-85
University of Denver Fellowship, 1983-84
TEACHING
Class, Cornell University, Shawkat Toorawa’s Literature and Film of Muslim Diaspora(s),
Fall 2014. My Trajectory as a Writer.
Guest Instructor, Cornell University, Lori Leonard’s Gender and Development class, Fall
2014. Two writing workshops and 26 one-on-one individual writing conferences.
Writing Workshops, O’Donnell Visiting Educator in Global Studies, Whitman College,
Walla Walla, Washington, May 5 and 7, 2014. Two classes and 15 one-on-one
individual writing conferences.
Classes, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, Kevin Seidel’s Global
Novels, Global Conflicts, and Chad Gusler’s Prose Workshop: Fiction, March 3,
2014.
Teachers’ Workshop, Novels are Windows into Other Worlds: Teaching Novels Across
Genres and Disciplines, for English and social studies high school teachers in the
Ithaca City School District, Ithaca, NY, January 28, 2013.
Workshop, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia, November 2012. Workshop on
autobiographical writing and class on fiction.
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Seminar (with Naeem Inayatullah), From Fact to Fiction, sponsored by the York Centre
for International and Security Studies at York University, Toronto, Canada,
October 25, 2012. Graduate student seminar on writing.
Writing Workshops, O’Donnell Visiting Educator in Global Studies, Whitman College,
Walla Walla, Washington, April 2012. Two classes and 18 one-on-one individual
writing workshops.
Class, Cornell University, Shawkat Toorawa’s Writing Muslims: Literature & Film of
Muslim Diaspora(s) Class, September 28, 2011. Class on the relationship between
fiction and history.
Writing Workshop (with Naeem Inayatullah), From Fact to Fiction, sponsored by Centre
for Feminist Research, Trans-Border Feminist Collective, the School of Women’s
Studies, the Associate Dean of Research, the York Centre for Asian Research, the
York Centre for International and Security Studies and the Graduate Program in
Political Science at York University, Toronto, Canada, December 2, 2010.
Undergraduate and graduate workshops.
Class, Ithaca College, Amanullah De Sondy’s South Asian Religions: Gender, Sexuality
and the Body class, May 5, 2010. Class on the realities of the 1947 Partition of
India.
Class, University of Illinois at Chicago, Mary Anne Mohanraj’s Introduction to Fiction
class, September 19, 2008.
Writing Workshop, Tikar Pandan Writing Community, Banda Aceh, Indonesia, May 14,
2007. Workshop on writing a novel.
Seminar, University of Texas, Austin, South Asian Writers Speak: Women, War, and
Trauma, South Asia Institute and Center for Women and Gender Studies, March 8,
2006.
Lecture, Ithaca College Writing Program, Elizabeth Lawson’s Methaphor and Meme
class, “Representing War Fictionally,” April 7, 2006.
Lectures, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, Cara Cilano’s Studies in Post Colonial
Literature and Studies in Literature classes, “The Story of Noor: Silence and
Forgetting in War,” March 2005.
Workshop, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, Philip Gerard’s Research Methods
in Creative Writing, March 2005. Taught graduate student workshop on research
and novel writing.
Sorayya Y. Khan / Page 5
SELECTED READINGS/PRESENTATIONS
Reading, Writers Read Annual Series, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg,
Virginia, March 3, 2014.
Invited Presentation, Luncheon Forum, Diving into the Silence of War, Eastern
Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, Virginia, March 3, 2014.
Invited faculty workshop participant, Writing the Self: Incorporating Autoethnography
Across Disciplines, Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington, May 9, 2014.
Readings, On the Brink of War and Peace: South Asian History in Fiction, Mohawk Valley
Community College, Rome and Utica campuses, NY, February 27, 2013.
Reading, Visiting Writer, Agnes Scott College Writers and Scholars Series Fall 2012,
Decatur, Georgia, November 8, 2012.
Invited workshop participant, Critical Methodologies, Narrative Voice, and the Writing of
the Political: The Limits of Language, York University, Toronto, October 26-27,
2012.
Invited presentation, Novels are Windows: Reading from Five Queen’s Road, for Global
Islam: Workshop for Community College Faculty sponsored by the Mario Einaudi
Center for International Studies, Cornell University, October 20, 2012.
Reading, Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington, April 2012.
Reading, Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival Opening Event (with Naeem
Inayatullah), I, IR: International Microtopias, Buffalo Street Books, March 2012.
Reading, The Second Floor (T2F), Karachi, Pakistan, March 22, 2011.
Invited Presentation, Fiction as Memory Bank, for workshop on
Pakistan/Bangladesh/India: Building a field of scholarship and dialogue on 1971,
sponsored by BRAC Development Institute, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
March 16-17, 2011.
Invited Presentation, The Motivation and Research for Noor and Thoughts on Novel as
Witness, York University Research Seminar on Literature and Human Right and
York Centre for Asian Research, York University, Toronto, Canada, December 3,
2010.
Reading, Five Queen’s Road and Noor, York University, Toronto, Canada, December 2,
2010.
Reading, Writing Partition: Five Queen’s Road and Noor, for Gender Violence and
Dislocation in South Asia and Latin America series sponsored by Mario Einaudi
International Studies Program at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, October 5, 2010.
Sorayya Y. Khan / Page 6
Reading, Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF) and Buffalo Street Books,
Buffalo Street Books, Ithaca, NY, April 11, 2010.
Reading, And the World Changed (book launch), CUNY Graduate Center, New York, New
York, December 5, 2008.
Reading, Institute for the Humanities and University of Illinois Chicago English
Department, Chicago, Illinois, September 18, 2008.
Reading, DesiLit, Chicago, Illinois, September 20, 2008.
Invited Presentation, “Writer, Reader, and Editor Contemplate Girls for Sale and Six
Acres and a Third,” The Literary View from Below: Comparative Indian and
Diasporic South-Asian Related Literature, Cornell University Conference and
Workshop, Ithaca, NY, May 4, 2008.
Reading, Distinguished Writer, Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, “A Topography
of Banda Aceh,” Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, Ithaca College, Ithaca,
NY, April 4, 2008.
Panelist, “The Imagination of Displacement,” with Sehba Sarwar, Maniza Naqvi, and
Ilona Yusuf, Associated Writing Programs Annual Conference, March 3, 2007,
Atlanta, Georgia.
Reading, "And Then We Were Strangers: Literature from India and Pakistan" („und
plötzlich waren wir Fremde – Literatur aus Indien und Pakistan"),
Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, Germany, September 26-29, 2006.
Lecture, “Silence and Forgetting in War: The Story of Writing Noor, A Novel,” South Asia
Program, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, April 17, 2006.
Panelist, “De-scribing Empire: Writing War and Trauma,” with Waqas Khwaja, Sehba
Sarwar, Syed Afzal Haider, Alka Roy, Mahmud Rahman, Associated Writing
Programs Annual Conference, March 9, 2006, Austin, TX.
Panelist, “History Adrift: Fictional Worlds and Imagined Realities,” with Waqas Khwaja,
Sehba Sarwar, Syed Afzal Haider, Alka Roy, Associated Writing Programs Annual
Conference, April 2005, Vancouver, BC.
Guest Speaker, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, “My Fulbright Experience,”
March 2005.
Invited Lecture, University of Austin, Texas, English and Anthropology Departments, The
Stories of NOOR, September 2004.
Sorayya Y. Khan / Page 7
Chair and Panelist, “Reading: Pakistani Writing in English,” with Waqas Khwaja,
Moazzam Sheikh, Sehba Sarwar, Syed Afzal Haider, Associated Writing Programs
Annual Conference, March 2004, Chicago, IL.
Reading, The Bookery, Ithaca, New York, October 2003.
Panelist, “Fulbright Grants for Faculty and Professional Writers,” with Deborah Owen
Moore, Wendell Mayo, John Verlenden, Jerry McGuire, Associated Writing
Programs Annual Conference, February 2003, Baltimore, MD.
Participant in “Resetting the Margins” national reading tour organized by the Asian
American Writers’ Workshop, 1995.
INTERVIEWS
“Looking at the Light: An Interview with Sorayya Khan,” in Empty Treasure Chests
Dumped from Departed Ships, Studies in Literature in English, volume 3, edited by
Liliana Sikorska, Peter Lang International Academic Publishers (Germany), 2011.
The Campbell Conversations with Grant Reeher, WRVO, Public Radio Station in Syracuse,
NY, 89.9 FM, August 24, 2010.
“Bloodlines, Bloodshed: War’s Multi-Generational Trauma,” Ithaca Post, Ithaca, NY,
April 10, 2010.
Curious Book Fans, on line UK book lover’s site, March 2, 2010.
EDUCATION
Invited participant in Douglas Unger’s Graduate Fiction Writing Workshops at Syracuse
University, 1989 and 1990.
Ph.D. Candidate, (ABD) 1985-87
Graduate School of International Studies
University of Denver, Colorado
Fields: Human Rights, Third World Development
MA International Studies, 1985
Graduate School of International Studies
University of Denver, Colorado
BA cum laude Political Science, 1983
Allegheny College
Meadville, Pennsylvania
Sorayya Y. Khan / Page 8
EXPERIENCE
Fiction Writer 1987-present
Researched, wrote, reconceptualized, and revised my novels, NOOR, FIVE
QUEEN’S ROAD, and CITY OF SPIES.
Research Fellow, Aceh Institute, Banda Aceh, Indonesia, May 2007
Conducted research and interviews in Banda Aceh for a creative non-fiction
project comparing trauma among tsunami survivors and conflict survivors.
Fulbright Research Scholar, 1999-2000
Conducted research in Pakistan and Bangladesh for Writing Partitions Project.
Traveled extensively in both countries, conducting interviews and archival
research.
Technical Writer 1991-92/Atlantic States Legal Foundation, Syracuse, New York
Projects included researching, writing, editing, and designing Citizens’ Resource
Guide on environmental issues in the Great Lakes area.
Assistant Foreign Student Advisor 1986-88/Center for Academic Support Services,
University of Denver, Colorado
Responsibilities included writing and designing annual Foreign Student Handbook,
developing and maintaining computerized information database, general and
academic student advising, counseling on INS procedures.
Research Assistant 1985-87/Graduate School of International Studies, University of
Denver, Colorado
Assisted Dr. George Shepherd in research and analyses on Indian Ocean arms
control and refugee problems; Edited and proofread for the Monograph Series in
World Affairs.
Research Associate 1985/The World Bank/International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development, Education and Training Department, Washington, DC
Project involved conducting data extraction and analysis of World Bank lending for
Education projects during fiscal period 1984-85 and writing summary reports.
Public Relations Associate 1983/United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR), Islamabad, Pakistan
Position entailed writing press releases and position papers for Headquarters,
preparing press kits for journalists and coordinating briefing sessions.