The Short Form: a fun website

An interview of me over at the lively, thought-provoking site, The Short Form, is up today:

http://theshortform.com/interview/uzma-aslam-khan

An excerpt:

      What is your relationship with short stories?

      Novels, not short stories, are my first love. I came to short stories late.   
      Possibly the first ones I read in English that made me go, wow, these are 
      amazing, but, oh, these are difficult, was in grad school. The stories were
      "The Egg" by Sherwood Anderson and "Slave on the Block" by Langston       
      Hughes. What did -- and continues to -- draw me to this form, when I'm 
      drawn to it, is control and precision, two things I arrive at more easily when 
      writing a chapter, rather than a complete story. A short story must end,
      while a chapter must urge you to turn the page. It's a physical and 
      psychological difference: I don't like socks and I don't like to tuck the sheets 
      under my bed ...


It was fun thinking more about my sometimes difficult connection to the short form while tackling the questions. And if you visit the site, read the other author responses too. A great way to spend a weekday evening. 

Friday Times Interview (a little belatedly), Indian and Canadian Cover, and More

This interview appeared a couple weeks back in the Friday Times, but the link mysteriously disappeared from my blog. In it I discuss the new book, attacks against religious minorities in Pakistan, including on blasphemy charges, and Nana's blasphemy case in my previous book, The Geometry of God. Here's the link again:
http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta3/tft/article.php?issue=20121026&page=20

The interviewer is Awais Aftab and you can check out his excellent blog here:
http://awaisaftab.blogspot.com/2012/10/uzma-aslam-khans-interview.html

I also want to extend a special thanks to those who came out to hear me read from Thinner than Skin on November 8th. It was a cold weekday evening, but folks -- including many students -- still showed up. You give me hope.

And, and: Thinner than Skin is soon to be released in India, Pakistan, and Canada. Check out the cover below. The Indian edition is a very handsome hardcover, while in Canada it's a trade paperback, one of those soft, wrap-around things -- and with deckle-edged pages! I've always wanted a book with deckle-edged pages. The quality, color, texture, and cut of paper can make me supremely happy, and now, finally, with the fourth child, voila. Please go out and touch it.




Booklink Reading on Thursday, Nov 8th, at 6:30 p.m.

My new book, Thinner than Skin, is now out in the US, and I will be reading from it this coming week.

WHEN: Thursday, November 8th, at 6:30 p.m.
WHERE: Booklink Booksellers, Thornes Marketplace, Northampton, MA.

If you live in the area, please come!

Two very kind writers comment on the book:

‘Smart, fierce, and poignant: perhaps the most exciting novel yet by this very talented writer.’ Mohsin Hamid, author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist.


'In gorgeous prose, Khan writes about Pakistan, a land of breathtaking beauty, and the complex relationships between people who are weighted with grief and estrangement, As her characters' lives play out against the backdrop of the external world whose violence gradually closes in on them, Khan brilliantly probes the fatal limitations of human understanding. A novel of great lucidity and tenderness, filled with splendid descriptions of the land, the people who have always inhabited it, and those who are irresistibly drawn to it.' Thérèse Soukar Chehade, author of Loom, and Winner of the 2011 Arab-American Book Award.