Hafsa Zayyan
Author
Agent
Assistant
Melissa Tombere
MTombere@UnitedAgents.co.ukBiography
Hafsa Zayyan is half-Nigerian, half-Pakistani and was born and raised (mostly) in the UK. She is a dispute resolution lawyer working in the City of London, and is also the author of WE ARE ALL BIRDS OF UGANDA, the winner of MerkyBooks’ inaugural New Writer’s Prize. Other work includes contributions to OF THIS OUR COUNTRY, a collection of essays exploring writers’ relationships with Nigeria, and WILL YOU READ THIS, PLEASE?, a collection of short stories based on real experiences focusing on mental health.
Publications
Fiction
‘You can’t exactly stop birds from flying, can you? They go where they will…’
1960s Uganda. Hasan is struggling to run his family business following the sudden death of his wife. Just as he begins to see a way forward, a new regime seizes power, and a wave of rising prejudice threatens to sweep away everything he has built.
Present-day London. Sameer, a young high-flying lawyer, senses an emptiness in what he thought was the life of his dreams. Called back to his family home by an unexpected tragedy, Sameer begins to find the missing pieces of himself not in his future plans, but in a past he never knew.
AS A CONTRIBUTOR
How do we give a voice to those who so often remain unheard? Will You Read This, Please? is a frank and impactful collection of twelve stories written in conjunction with our best British writers, including Tracy Chevalier and Clare Mackintosh, based on the lived experience of people who have faced mental illness in the UK.
Edited by Sunday Times bestselling author Joanna Cannon, the stories told here are powerful, resonant and heart-breaking. This is a ground-breaking and unforgettable collection, shining a light on the stigma and isolation of living with mental illness, while also showing the strength and resilience of the human spirit.
