Clarkston-based Sumayya Usmani recently turned to narrative writing after having started out writing cookbooks. Originally from Karachi, Pakistan, Usmani practised law for 12 years before taking up writing professionally, seeking to touch the hearts of Asian readers and inspire others through personal and human stories of food, culture and history. She has written two cookbooks on Pakistani culture – Summers Under the Tamarind Tree, which won the Gourmand Award for Best First Cookbook, and Mountain Berries and Desert Spice, which was shortlisted for the Food and Travel Awards. Usmani is currently working on a food memoir, Andaza, about her upbringing on merchant navy vessels and in Pakistan. The book is set against the backdrop of political unrest and challenges in the country during the 1980s. She additionally runs Kaleyard, Glasgow’s first non-profit social enterprise cook school. Usmani said: “I’m honoured to win this award and thank Scottish Book Trust for this
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Writers celebrate close literary links in online festival Virtual Crossways 2021: The Irish Scottish Cultural and Literary Festival this weekend which features Bulgarian-born writer Kapka Kassabova who now lives in the Highlands By Val Sweeney Published: 19:30, 12 February 2021
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Writer Kapka Kassabova.
A Bulgarian-born writer living in the Highlands is to take part in an online festival bringing together some of the most-acclaimed poets and writers in Ireland and Scotland.
Award-winning Kapka Kassabova, who lives at Kilmorack, is taking part in Virtual Crossways 2021: The Irish Scottish Cultural and Literary Festival this weekend.
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Want to read more?
At the start of the pandemic in March we took the decision to make online access to our news free of charge by taking down our paywall. At a time where accurate information about Covid-19 was vital to our community, this was the right decision – even though it meant a drop in our income. In order to help safeguard the future of our journalism, the time has now come to reinstate our paywall, However,
rest assured that access to all Covid related news will still remain free.
To access all other news will require a subscription, as it did pre-pandemic. The good news is that for the whole of December we will be running a special discounted offer to get 3 months access for the price of one month. Thank you for supporting us during this incredibly challenging time.
A SHETLAND writer is one of 11 people to receive a prize from a Scottish Book Trust initiative which recognises new talent.
Hannah Nicholson, who is originally from Brae, was selected in the fiction and narrative non-fiction category of the book trustâs 2021 new writers awards.
This means she will receive £2,000 as well as support including mentoring from writers and industry professionals, training opportunities, and the platform to showcase their work to publishers and agents.
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Nicholson, who now lives in Aberdeen, is known to write in Shetland dialect.
She won the Shetland Library young writer of the year award in 2005 before heading south for university.