My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird: New fiction by Afghan Women (MacLehose Press, 2022), translated into English from Dari and Pashto by Parwana Fayyaz, Zarghuna Kargar, Dr Negeen Kargar and Dr Zubair Popalzai.
“Powerful, profound and deeply moving, these stories will expand your mind and elevate your heart” – Elif Shafak, author of The Forty Rules of Love (Penguin Books, 2009)
My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird is a landmark collection: the first anthology of short fiction by Afghan women, in translation from Dari and Pashto. The anthology of 18 stories has been published in the US, and translated into Japanese, Korean, Ukrainian and Chinese (Mandarin). Individual stories have also been published online in many literary journals around the world.
“This book is a precious collection of work, the first and maybe last of its kind. My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird is a huge accomplishment” – Monique Roffey, author of The Mermaid of Black Conch (Peepal Tree Press, 2020)
My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird: New fiction by Afghan Women (MacLehose Press, 2022) has since been translated into:
Japanese (Shogakukan, 2023), translated by Midori Furuya
American English (Grand Central Publishing, 2022)
Korean (Pacho Publishing, 2025), translated by Lee Jeong-eun
