| Mohammed Hanif | |
| Birth Date: | November 1964 |
| Birth Place: | Okara, Punjab, Pakistan |
| Occupation: | Writer, journalist |
| Nationality: | |
| Spouse: | Nimra Bucha |
| Alma Mater: | University of East Anglia, Pakistan Air Force Academy |
| Period: | 2008–present |
| Notableworks: | A Case of Exploding Mangoes |
| Awards: | Wellcome Book Prize, Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Commonwealth Prize for Best Book |
Mohammed Hanif (born November 1964) is a British-Pakistani writer and journalist who writes a monthly opinion piece in The New York Times.[1]
Hanif is the author of the critically acclaimed novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, and won the Commonwealth Prize for Best Book.[2] His second book, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, won the Wellcome Book Prize. He also worked as a correspondent for the BBC News based in Karachi and was the writer of an acclaimed feature film about the city, The Long Night.[3] [4] [5] His work has been published by The New York Times,[6] [7] The Daily Telegraph,[8] The New Yorker[9] and The Washington Post. His play The Dictator's Wife has been staged at the Hampstead Theatre.[10]
He was born in Okara, Punjab. He graduated from Pakistan Air Force Academy as a pilot officer, but subsequently left to pursue a career in journalism.[11] He initially worked for Newsline and wrote for The Washington Post and India Today. He is a graduate of the University of East Anglia.[12] In 1996, he moved to London to work for the BBC. Later, he became the head of the BBC's Urdu service in London.[12] He moved back to Pakistan in 2008.[13]
His first novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes (2008) was shortlisted for the 2008 Guardian First Book Award[14] and longlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize.[15] It won the 2009 Commonwealth Book Prize in the Best First Book category[16] and the 2008 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize.[17]
Hanif has also written for the stage and screen, including a feature film, The Long Night (2002), a BBC radio play, What Now, Now That We Are Dead?, and the stage play The Dictator's Wife (2008).[18] His second novel, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, was published in 2011.[19] It was shortlisted for the Wellcome Trust Book Prize (2012),[20] and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature (2013).[21]
He is currently collaborating with composer Mohammed Fairouz on an opera titled Bhutto.[22]
In 2018, he wrote a novel called Red Birds.
Hanif's style has often been compared with that of the author Salman Rushdie, although Hanif himself disagrees with this assessment. Once, to a question if he had grown up wanting to be a writer like Salman Rushdie, he said that while "[e]verybody of a certain age wanted to write like Rushdie and so did I", he would not want being "hunted around the world."[23]
In opposition to Pakistan's ongoing persecution of the Baloch people and police crackdown during a protest march in Islamabad on December 20, 2023, Mohammed Hanif has returned his "Sitara-e-Imtiaz" award.[24]
Hanif is married to the actress Nimra Bucha.[25]