A Suitable Agency is delighted to announce that it will represent renowned Pakistani author and art historian Salima Hashmi’s extraordinary new memoir, Waiting in the Wings. Her father Faiz Ahmed Faiz comes vividly to life in her account, not just as one of the subcontinent’s most legendary poets, but in his role as a devoted father, husband and political activist. Beautifully written and detailed, it captures the rich vibrancy of Lahore in the post-Independence decades when Faiz and his feisty English wife Alys were at the heart of the city’s cultural scene. Hashmi’s safe childhood world changed after Faiz was arrested in the Rawalpindi Conspiracy case and the political scene shifted as the military took charge. Waiting in the Wings is a moving and fascinating account of a family, an era and a country.
Salima Hashmi is an internationally acclaimed artist, curator, contemporary art historian and activist. She taught at the National College of Arts, Lahore, for thirty years, four of them as Principal. Her publications include Memories, Myths, Mutations: Contemporary Art of India and Pakistan co-authored with Yashodhara Dalmia; Two Loves: Faiz’s Letters from Jail and The Eye Still Seeks: Contemporary Art of Pakistan. She has curated numerous exhibitions, including the critically acclaimed This Night-Bitten Dawn hosted by the Gujral Foundation and the Devi Art Foundation in Delhi.