Musharraf Ali Farooqi was born on July 26, 1968. He is a writer, translator, and storyteller from Pakistan and Canada. In 2012, he was one of five writers chosen for Asia's most important literary award. Along with his work writing and translating books, he is creating a publishing program in the Urdu language that focuses on children's books and classic stories. In 2012, he started a publishing company called KITAB. In 2016, he created an online resource called the Urdu Thesaurus and developed an interactive program called the STORYKIT Program. These three projects are part of a learning program for children that uses activities to teach. His most recent book is The Merman and the Book of Power: A Qissa.
Biography
Farooqi began his education in Hyderabad at St Bonaventure's High School. He later attended Model School and College in Hyderabad, Sindh, and then studied at NED University of Engineering and Technology in Karachi for three years, but he did not complete his degree.
Farooqi is the author of the novel Between Clay and Dust, which was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize. His earlier novel, The Story of a Widow, was shortlisted for the 2011 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and considered for the 2010 International Dublin Literary Award. Rabbit Rap is a modernist fable for young adults. His children's books include the collection The Amazing Moustaches of Moochhander the Iron Man and Other Stories, illustrated by Michelle Farooqi, which was shortlisted for the India ComicCon Award in the "Best Publication for Children" category. Another book is the picture book The Cobbler's Holiday: or Why Ants Don't Wear Shoes.
Farooqi translated the 1871 version of Dastan-e Amir Hamza (Adventures of Amir Hamza) by Ghalib Lakhnavi and Abdullah Bilgrami. This translation was published in October 2007. He also published the first book of a planned 24-volume translation of Hoshruba, the world's first magical fantasy epic, in 2009. A selection from his translation of contemporary Urdu poet Afzal Ahmed Syed's poetry was published by the Wesleyan University Press Poetry Series in 2010.
In 2023, he won the first Armory Square Prize for Translation for his translation of Siddique Alam's collection The Kettledrum, which will be published in 2024 by Open Letter Books.