Shahnaz Ahsan is an author and food writer. Her new book, The Jackfruit Chronicles, will be published by HarperNorth (HarperCollins) in summer 2025.

Her debut novel, Hashim & Family  (John Murray Press) was named an Observer Best Book of 2020, longlisted for the Authors’ Club First Novel Prize, and shortlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker Prize. She is also an award-winning writer of short stories and screenplays.

 

Shahnaz is a columnist for Hyphen Online, and regularly writes for Observer Food Monthly. Her articles on food and family have also appeared in Waitrose Magazine, Borough Market Magazine, The Daily Telegraph, and various online publications. She is a member of the Guild of Food Writers and was a finalist in the 2023 Guild Awards. Her work has won grants from the Society of Authors (2023) and the Guild's Futures Fund (2024).

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Shahnaz is also an experienced tutor and has taught and mentored undergraduate students on the BA Creative Writing programme at the University of Westminster.

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Born and raised in West Yorkshire, she has also lived  in the USA, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, but her flattened northern vowels remain victorious.

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Image by Tracey Aiston Photography