“Very little has been written about this exciting period in history when Bollywood was capturing the imagination of young women, and Indira Gandhi – India’s first female prime minister - was rising through the political ranks. “It is a contemporary novel, exploring issues such as how young women have agency over their lives and what it means to love and be loved.” It’s a celebration of sisterhood and follows the lives of four very different siblings living in India in the 1960s and the tensions and experiences they encounter. “The book, a reimagining of a classic novel, features a mother who is desperate to get her daughters married off. But I was lucky and managed to get some Arts Council funding for mentoring to help guide me. “When I started the book, I wasn’t sure if it was any good. “I have been fitting my writing in between my commitments at DMU,” Farhana said. The seeds of an idea for a novel began during the Covid-19 pandemic while Farhana was a lecturer in Creative Writing at DMU. “I’m excited to have the opportunity to learn more about the craft and be in a dialogue with other writers and industry experts.” So, this news has come at a good time and I’m going to use it to propel forwards,” she said. I think I’m now at the stage with my novel where I’m moving closer to the finish line and having moments of creeping self-doubt and despair. “It’s a great honour to have achieved this. “I gave it a try last year, but didn’t get selected, so I’ve been delighted to be longlisted this time - this has given me a real boost,” she said.įarhana needed to send in the first three chapters of her novel to be judged for the programme and she is still busy finalising the full manuscript. This was Farhana’s second attempt at the Discoveries programme of the competition, aimed at emerging, unpublished writers who do not have an agent. It was a magical moment.”įarhana at the awards party with her literary heroine Roopa Farooki The shortlisted writers were all phenomenal and Barbara Kingsolver was genuinely shocked when they announced her as the winner. I was so excited to meet my fellow longlisted writers and share a space with such talented voices. The prize, which is worth £30,000, is awarded for the best full-length novel of the year written by a woman and published in the UK.įarhana said: “It was fantastic to be part of the awards ceremony surrounded by gorgeous flowers and book people. “It’s terrifying to think that the story I’ve imagined and have been working on for some time now, has taken on a life of its own.”įarhana was invited to attend the awards ceremony in London, where she was thrilled to meet some of her favourite authors, as well as this year’s overall winner Barbara Kingsolver, for her Pulitzer prize-winning novel Demon Copperhead. “I had to double check the email twice - just to be sure - and have been walking around in a bit of a daze since,” she said. Writer and publisher Farhana, who was born and grew up in Leicester, was both excited and nervous when she heard the news about her book No Place for a Young Woman. The programme aims to find emerging female writing talent from across the UK and Ireland. She is among 16 new authors who were longlisted out of nearly 3,000 entries in the Discoveries programme, run by the Women’s Prize Trust in partnership with Curtis Brown literary agency, the Curtis Brown creative writing school and Audible. Farhana Shaikh, a Marketing lecturer at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU), has been listed for the coveted 2023 Women’s Prize for Fiction for her first book.
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