NAZIRA'S NOTEBOOK

Tag: #writing

  • Showcase Time!

    Hello folks, I hope you’re well. I’m really honoured to say that When You’re Smiling, my novel, has been nominated for the SI Leeds Literary Prize 2022. The prize is for unpublished fiction by UK-based Black and Asian women. The aim of the prize, in the words of the organisers, “is to act as a →

  • Lessons of a Writer

    Hello, I hope you are well. The Koyal Writers have been running a series on their website over the last few months called ‘Lessons of a Writer’. As one-seventh of the group, it was my turn to contribute a few words recently, so I wrote about what I learned when faced with the question of →

  • Celebration Time!

    ‘Eid day is here!’ the children all cheer On the sighting of the new moon. The grownups feel a little bit sad: ‘But Ramadan has left us too soon!’ And then they remember that this special day Is a time of reward and celebration, So sad thoughts are all put to one side As houses →

  • Remembrance

    Praise Allah! Alhumdulillah!* For the fatigue in my limbs, The tightness in my throat, The parched landscape of my tongue. For it is with these gifts, Yielded through fasting, That I am reminded how I am fortunate, I am blessed, I am Muslim, I am His. Praise Allah! Alhumdulillah! For it is when I journey →

  • Whispers

    They’re supposed to be locked up. So what is this thing that still whispers to me? It came from the inside. Has one been left behind? Escaped imprisonment and taken up residence in my mind? This month is a mirror, an invitation to reflect. A time to transcend, an opportunity to reject. No outside influence →