Shamim Azad

Shamim Azad is a British bilingual poet, storyteller and writer of Bangladeshi origin.

Shamim Azad was born in Mymensingh, Dhaka, Bangladesh, (the town where her father worked), her hometown was Sylhet. She passed her Metric from Jamalpur Girls High School in 1967 and passed her Intermediate from Tangail Kumudini College in 1969. She enrolled in Dhaka University and gained an Honours degree in 1972 and a Masters degree in 1973.

In 1990, Azad came to London. and currently resides in Ilford.

Azad’s work ranges from Bangladeshi to European folktales. Her performance fuses the lines between education and entertainment and her workshops are rooted in Asian folk, oral traditions and heritage.

Azad has published books including novels, collections of short stories, essays and poems in both English and Bangla and has been included in various anthologies including British South Asian Poetry, My Birth Was Not In Vain, Velocity, Emlit Project and Mother Tongues. She wrote two plays for Half Moon Theatre.

She has performed at venues including the Museum of London, Cambridge Water Stone, Liberty Radio, Battersea Arts Centre, Lauderdale House, the Commonwealth Institute, British Library, British Council of Bangladesh, Takshila in Pakistan and New York.

She is a trustee of charity One World Action, a school Governor and Chairperson of Bishwa Sahitya Kendra (World Literature Centre) London.