Ismat Chughtai is one of the most renowned Urdu writers of the twentieth century in the subcontinent. A prolific writer, she has authored several collections of short stories; novellas; novels; a collection of reminiscences; essays including, ‘My Friend, My Enemy’; and a memoir, Kaghazi hai Perahan (The Paper Attire). With her husband, Shahid Latif, a film director, she produced and co-directed six films, and produced a further six independently.

Tahira Naqvi is a translator, writer, and Urdu language lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University. She has translated the works of Sa’adat Hasan Manto, Munshi Premchand, Khadija Mastoor, and Ismat Chughtai into English.