83 Willcocks Street
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5S 1C9
(tel) 416.324.8845
(fax) 416.324.8870
Saleema Nawaz's fiction has appeared in literary journals such as Prairie Fire, PRISM international, Grain, and The New Quarterly. Her first collection, Mother Superior, was published by Freehand Books in Fall 2008 and was a finalist for the Quebec Writers' Federation's McAuslan First Book Prize. Her short story "My Three Girls," was the winner of the 2008 Writers' Trust of Canada / McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize.
She lives in Montreal, where she is at work on a novel.
Praise for Mother Superior:
“I couldn’t stop turning the pages. . . Every once in a while, you get a writer who really knows how to weave those pleasures, guilty and good for you, together. . . In a book season touting a new generation of writers, this is the book I’m most likely to recommend.” -Montreal Mirror
“Nawaz’s stories have a huge diversity of voices and perspectives, and are filled with great eloquence and great compassion.” -Quill & Quire
“It’s not simply the writing, which is accomplished, or the drama, which is well paced, but the point of view that makes [Mother Superior] entirely original.” -The Gazette (Montreal)
“Definitely a late contender for the best of 2008.” -The Coast (Halifax)
“A truly impressive debut. [Nawaz] writes a flow of domestic observations that wrap around you smoothly, sometimes roughened by a sentence of probing pith. . . .But the real power of these stories is in the very practiced way the narrative unfolds. . . This is a satisfying and beautiful first collection of stories.” -Ottawa Xpress
“The sheer range of perspective and circumstance [in Mother Superior] is breathtaking. . . [Nawaz] is at her most effective when she reveals the depths of tragedy in the simple conflict between desire and reality. . . Many writers are capable of describing ‘other’ realities, but Nawaz gives expression, over and over again, to the fundamental human protest. . . The reader mines the gold of an instinctive empathy that is rare in its breadth and power.” -Montreal Review of Books
“These stories show real promise and make Saleema Nawaz. . . well worth paying attention to.” -Toronto Star
“Fetuses, children, babies, always slightly removed from the action and distanced from the heart of the narrative, populate this inventive first book of nine stories. . . Buy it.” -National Post
“Nawaz credits the reader with a collaborative imagination. It’s a treat.” -The Globe and Mail
“Nawaz has an eccentric yet down-to-earth perspective. She writes with sensitivity and an offbeat sense of humour as she explores the lives of a vulnerable and intriguing group of characters.” -What’s on Winnipeg
“Nawaz has created narrators who are engaging in their frankness, introducing us intimately to each strong, intelligent persona. . . Nawaz has written an ambitious book that succeeds in delivering telling details and sensitive nuances, moral ambiguities, and intriguing sexual personae.” -Rover Arts (Montreal)
“Each tale is fascinating, strange, and page-turningly readable.” -The Tyee
