Press
Elif Shafak: The five emotional books that have shaped me
The i Paper
My Dear Kabul (Coronet Books, 2024) was highlighted by Turkish-British novelist and essayist Elif Shafak as one of the five reads that have inspired her writing, interviewed by journalist Anna Bonet.
‘We’re like mice in a trap’ — tales of ordinary life for women in Kabul
The Sunday Times Culture Magazine
My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024) as BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week was highlighted in The Sunday Times Culture Magazine, 9 March 2025, by Patricia Nicol, Radio and Podcast Critic, alongside Inside Kabul podcast on Canadaland.
Afghan women facing an uncertain future
Times Literary Supplement (TLS)
My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024) was reviewed by Cyrus Naji – In Brief, 7 March 2025.
Global Issues
Radio Times
My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024) as Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4 was highlighted in Radio Times, March 2025, by Fiona Hughes.
My Dear Kabul is Book of the Week
BBC Radio 4
My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024) was Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4 from 3 to 8 March 2025.
Actresses Juliet Stevenson, Indira Varma, Chipo Chung and Shala Nyx read an abridgement of My Dear Kabul.
A chronicle of courage: the programme keeping Afghan women’s words alive
Positive News
My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024) was featured by writer Martin Wright for Positive News, including an interview with Marie, one of My Dear Kabul’s Afghan women writers. Illustrations by Nathalie Lees for Positive News.
Behind the veil: recounting the lives of Afghan women in books
The Hindu
My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024) was featured by writer and social media strategist Debasree Purkayastha for The Hindu as part of a selection of books that explore the lives of women in Afghanistan.
How sisterhood of writers helped Afghan women through Taliban takeover
Voice of America
Two of the 21 women writers of My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024), Marie and Fatima shared the story behind the collective diary with Noshaba Ashna and Roshaan Norzai from Voice of America.
Five books to read during Christmas and the winter holidays
RTL Today Radio
My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024) was picked by Today Radio news reader Sasha Kehoe and producer Meredith Moss as one of the five books to read during Christmas and the winter holidays.
“One of the most important books to have been published this year…”
Inside Time
My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024) was chosen by Inside Time as one of their recommended reads. One of the most important books to have been published this year,” writes novelist Louise Doughty.
Live from the Amnesty Amplify Festival
The Guilty Feminist
Parwana Fayyaz, Afghan poet, scholar, author of Forty Names (Carcanet Press, 2021), co-editor and co-translator of My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024), joined The Guilty Feminist live podcast recording at the Amplify Human Rights Festival.
My Dear Kabul: The shared pain of women writers in Afghanistan
Zan Times
One of 21 My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024) writers, Freshta, shares her experience of working with Untold Narratives during the fall of Kabul in 2021.
Available to read in English and Dari.
Meet the Afghan women writers who witnessed the fall of Kabul
Monocle Radio
Georgina Godwin speaks to Untold director, Lucy Hannah, and co-editor, Sunila Galappatti, about the process of recording the diary entries. One of the writers also describes what life is like in Kabul today.
Portholes: Preview
WritersMosaic
Sunila Galappatti talks to Colin Grant about ‘Portholes’, her forthcoming WritersMosaic guest edition, featuring five writers from Afghanistan who share days from their journals of exile.
“…despairing, hopeful, fascinatingly detailed and fiercely brave”
The Guardian
Authors, critics and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read in September 2024. Author Lissa Evans chose My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024) after reading My Pen Is The Wing of a Bird (MacLehose Press, 2022) last year.
Top 10 books to read this fall
The Markaz Review
My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024) featured in the The Markaz Review list of 10 must-read titles for this fall.
The Afghan women writers who bore witness to the fall of Kabul
Himal Southasia Review of Books
Marie, among the 21 contributors to My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024), and two of the book’s editors Parwana Fayyaz and Sunila Galappatti, speak with host Shwetha Srikanthan on the Himal Southasian Podcast.
“These writings in translation honour the individuality of Afghan women and their voices”
Himal Southasia Review of Books
My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024) featured in Southasia Review of Books as part of Women in Translation Month. Himal Southasian is Southasia’s first and only regional magazine of politics and culture.
Afghan women writers ‘want their voices heard’
BBC Cambridgeshire
My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024) translator Parwana Fayyaz was interviewed by BBC Cambridgeshire’s Louise Hulland on 5 September 2024.
Newshour
BBC Radio 4
On 18 August 2024, My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024) writer Batool Haidari and translator Parwana Fayyaz, were interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Newshour.
Today
BBC Radio 4
On 17 August 2024, My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024) writer Batool Haidari and translator Parwana Fayyaz, along with Untold’s director Lucy Hannah, appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
The realities of life under Taliban rule, as told by the women of Afghanistan
Service95
Service95 is a global editorial platform founded by Dua Lipa. In this exclusive extract from My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024), all the women are writing from the city of Kabul as the Taliban advance and take control of the city.
Three years ago this month America withdrew from Afghanistan
The Economist
The Economist reviewed My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024) alongisde War & Peace & War (Ihtaka Press, 2024) by Andrew North and Twenty Years (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2024) by Sune Rasmussen.
The Afghan women who won’t be silenced
The Observer & The Guardian
My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024) was Book of the Day in The Guardian and was reviewed in the Observer by Hephzibah Anderson.
Exploring the contradictions of a state in A Fistful of Moonlight
Purple Pencil Project
Writer Priyadarshini Gauri reviewed A Fistful of Moonlight (MacLehose Press UK & BEE Books, India, 2023) for Purple Pencil Project, a venture aimed to bring the spotlight on Indian literature.
August reads: My Dear Kabul
The Bookseller
Natasha Omwuemezi featured My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024) in her Discover: August reads in The Bookseller print edition on 5 July 2024. My Dear Kabul was also listed online in Caroline Sanderson’s non-fiction previews for August 2024.
Excerpt from My Pen Is The Wing Of A Bird
Service95
“Sharing their true stories”
The Week Junior
“Breaking stereotypes that their country is only about war…”
The Markaz Review
“Remarkable women … and remarkable conversations”
BBC Radio 5
“An important initiative to promote these otherwise less heard voices”
Handelsblatt, Germany
“Moving, profound and memorable”
Buzzfeed, US
“[These] stories form a remarkable portrait of lives largely invisible to readers outside Afghanistan. This brims with humanity.”
Publishers Weekly, US
My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird (MacLehose Press, 2022) featured in Publishers Weekly, a US weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents.
“This intense collection does inspire hope that Afghan women and girls will persevere”
NPR, US
NPR’s Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reviewed My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird (MacLehose, 2022) alongisde We Are Still Here: Afghan Women on Courage, Freedom and the Fight to Be Heard (Penguin Canada, 2022).
How we live now: Afghanistan’s women speak
The Financial Times
Extracts from a collective diary that later became My Dear Kabul (Coronet, 2024) were published by The Financial Times to mark the anniversary of the fall of Kabul.
“A hugely ambitious project”
The Guardian
My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird (MacLehose Press, 2022) featured in a review by Lucy Knight, commissioning editor for books at The Guardian.
“These stories […] reiterate how much Afghan women could again say and do, if only they were allowed to.”
The Economist
My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird (MacLehose Press, 2022) was reviewed by The Economist.
“Vivid snapshots of a country beset by war and violence, where misogyny is rife but women continue to dream of a better future.”
The Financial Times
Lucy Popescu, editor and writer, reviewed My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird (MacLehose Press, 2022) for The Financial Times.
“A revolutionary collection of short stories from Afghanistan sees women writers take back their creative power”
BBC Radio 4
Elizabeth Day, novelist and journalist, spoke to Lucy Hannah, director at Untold Narratives, about My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird (MacLehose Press, 2022), Untold’s new collection of fiction from Afghan women writers, for BBC Open Book.
“An authentic and arresting collection of tales that are unlike any you may have read before”
Whistles
An interview with Untold Narratives director Lucy Hannah and Untold’s translator Zarghuna Kargar and an excerpt from Daughter Number Eight, a short story by Freshta, were featured by Whistles.
“An extraordinary project”
Monocle Radio
Georgina Godwin, broadcaster at Monocle Radio, sits down with Lucy Hannah, Untold Narratives director, and Shekiba Habib, translator and journalist with the BBC Afghan service, to discuss My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird (MacLehose Press, 2022).
The Afghan women writing for freedom
Intelligence Squared
On 18 May 2022, Lucy Hannah, Untold Narratives director, Zarghuna Kargaar, Untold’s translator and Marie, writer, spoke to Intelligence Squared about My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird (MacLehose Press, 2022).
“My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird [is] little short of a miracle”
The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
Book critics Cameron Woodhead and Steven Carroll reviewed My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird (MacLehose, 2022) for The Sydney Morning Herald.
“This book is a powerful reminder […] that everyone has a story and every story matters.”
Mint Lounge, India
Writer Shreemayee Das reviewed My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird (MacLehose, 2022) for Mint Lounge, a weekend magazine.
“Centring the experiences of Afghan women and girls”
The Arts Desk
The Arts Desk published an extract from The Most Beautiful Lips in the World, a short story by Elahe, translated from Dari by Dr Negeen Kargar.
“Though the stories are often challenging, the writers grant their characters moments of connection, and grace”
Asian Review of Books
My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird (MacLehose Press, 2022) was reviewed by writer Rosie Milne for Asian Review of Books.
Review of My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird
Lekkwal
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