AS 2010 ended and 2011 began, the announcement of the 2010 Spirit Lifetime Achievement Award for Bapsi Sidhwa by the Central Asia Institute founded by Greg Mortenson (author of Three Cups of Tea) marked an auspicious moment for contemporary Pakistani English fiction which was pioneered by Sidhwa and the novelist, poet and critic Zulfikar Ghose. Now Sidhwa’s wonderful comedy The Croweaters is being translated into Urdu by Professor Muhammad Umar Memon.

The increasing confidence and quality of Pakistani English literature is reflected by the number of writers who are winning major literary awards. This trend is likely to continue in 2011 where the contenders for the inaugural DSC award for South Asian Fiction include two Pakistani novels: Story of a Widow by Musharraf Ali Farooqi which tells of a woman quest for empowerment and self in Karachi, and Home Boy by H.M. Naqvi which follows the travails of three Pakistani friends in post 9/11 New York.

The 2011 longlist for a new British interdisciplinary prize, the Warwick Prize for Writing includes The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam, a harrowing and moving tale of modern Afghanistan. It is also good to see Pakistan’s new literary journal Life’s Too Short Literary Review which alongside its annual story competition promises to be a much-needed platform for home-grown talent.

In 2011 we are also likely to hear more about two recently published first novels. Beautiful From This Angle by Maha Khan Philips which reveals a great gift for satire and lampoons cultural and political platitudes through the life and times of a young woman socialite; while Auras of the Jinn by Haider Warraich combines wit and tragedy to tell of the hazards and difficulties faced by Imran, the son of a mechanic, who comes to believe that he is possessed by a (female) jinn.

There is also much excitement over the 79-year old Jamil Ahmad’s forthcoming first novel The Wandering Falcon which was excerpted in Granta’s special Pakistan issue and which tells of tribal life in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa.

Another forthcoming debut novel Invitation by Shaheryar Fazli’s adds to the growing Pakistani literature on the 1971 conflict that includes Roopa Farooki’s intricate fourth novel Half Life which excavates past friendships across the intertwined histories of Pakistan and Bangladesh. Other forthcoming novels are Cloud Messenger by Aamer Hussein and Slum Child by Bina Shah.

Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist is due to be made into a film by Mira Nair. Meanwhile in Britain, Rukhsana Ahmed continues with her critically acclaimed radio adaptations of well-known novels including Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeeem Aslam. While English language drama continues to flourish in the diaspora, in Pakistan it remains virtually non-existent except for Mohammed Hanif’s hugely successful The Dictator’s Wife.

Although there is good poetry written by resident Pakistanis, it is greatly hampered by the paucity of publishing opportunities.

In the diaspora Pakistani Britons, namely Moniza Alvi, Imtiaz Dharker and John Siddique continue to receive critical acclaim. Siddique follows up his 2010 collection Recital: An Almanac, which includes moving poems about 7/7, with a new volume of poetry titled Full Blood.

While Shahab Zeest Hashmi’s first collection, Baker of Tarifa: Poems heralds a Pakistani American poet of originality and talent: her vivid disciplined poems recreate multi-layered images of Muslim Spain that are both timeless and historical.

Good translations continue to be in demand. Yasmeen Hameed’s Pakistani Urdu Verse: An anthology consists of her skilled English renditions of diverse Urdu nazms; while an excellent forthcoming collection Modern Poetry Of Pakistan edited by Ifthikar Arif and Waqas Khwaja brings together for the first time poems translated into English from seven major Pakistani languages.

Musharraf Farooqi will be publishing the second volume in his ambitious Hoshruba series; his elegant translation Rococo and Other Worlds: Selected poems of Afzal Ahmed Syed is also available now.

Ghulam Fatima Shaikh’s memoir Footprints in Time: Reminiscences of a Sindhi matriarch has been translated by her granddaughter Rasheeda Hussain, and Atiya Fyzee’s travelogue in Atiya’s Journeys: A Muslim woman from colonial Bombay to Edwardian Britain by Sunil Sharma and Siobhan Lambert Hurley promises to be fascinating.

International interest in Pakistani literature is embodied by the enormous success worldwide of Granta’s Pakistan issue which includes some truly fine fiction, translations and non-fiction, alongside spectacular images of art.

Now two academic publications are bringing out a special Pakistan issue: in the US The Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies guest-edited by Dr Waqas Ahmad Khwaja and Dr Ghazala Hashmi covers mostly critical articles and extensive reviews of Pakistani English literature; in the UK The Journal of Postcolonial Writing, guest-edited by me, focuses on critical articles about the new generation of Pakistani English writers and also includes creative work.

Zulfikar’s Ghose’s forthcoming collection of critical essays In The Ring of Pure Light: Lectures on language and literature provides insights into a host of classical and contemporary writers as well as Ghose’s extensive oeuvre.

Claire Chambers’ forthcoming book on British Muslim writers is likely to arouse much interest, while the recent publication of The Scorpion’s Tale: The relentless rise of militants in Pakistan by Zahid Hussain and Asif Noorani’s Mehdi Hasan: The man and his music indicates the enormous range of Pakistani English non-fiction which will continue to grow and develop in the coming year.