Sehba Sarwar

Sehba Sarwar resides in Houston, Tx. She grew up in Karachi, where she received her secondary education and went on to earn an undergraduate degree in English in at Mount Holyoke College, USA. After returning to Karachi and working as Editor at the Star for a year, she returned to the USA to obtain a graduate degree in Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin. Sarwar has been living in Houston for the last ten years, is married to a Mexican-American educator and is co-Founder and Director of Voices Breaking Boundaries, a non-profit multi-media arts organization. She has also published her poetry and is a radio producer. She teaches writing workshops and regularly returns to Pakistan to visit family.

Bibliography



Black Wings
Alhamra Publishing, Ismabad. e (2004)

Spanning two continents, Black Wings is the story of Laila and Yasmeen, a mother and daughter, struggling to meet across the generations, cultures, and secrets that separate them. The protagonist Yasmeen, a recent divorcèe, is living in Houston with her young children, Saira and Sameer, when her mother, Laila, visits from Pakistan to meet her grandchildren for the first time. Estranged from Laila, whom she secretly blames for the death of her twin brother, Yasir, Yasmeen has been living in the United States for many years. But her mother's visit and the stories she weaves for her grandchildren about Yasmeen and Yasir's childhood in Karachi and a hill station village Hawagali (an invented Gali, which serves as the venue for much of the drama) force Yasmeen to confront the past and its painful memories of loss.

Slowly, as mother and daughter share layers of magical stories with the children and each other, Yasmeen learns about her mother's secrets and the twisted circumstances of her twin's death. Deciding to return to her homeland for a long overdue visit, Yasmeen takes a temporary leave from her life and her lover in Houston to visit Pakistan with her mother and children. More stories, real and magical, emerge as the fog continues to cloud the family's past even as they wind their way into the Pakistani hill station and a confrontation with the past.

Sawnet Review by Lisa E. J. Lau, Anita Wadhwa

Poignant Pen. Review by Muneeza Shamsie in Newsline.

South Asian Women authors
Sawnet Bookshelf
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