Shah is the author of four novels and two collections of short stories. She has been published in English, Italian, French, Spanish, Danish, Chinese, German and Vietnamese. Her novel Slum Child was published in 2008, while a historical fiction novel about Sindh, A Season For Martyrs was published in 2014 by Delphinium Books. Her fiction and non-fiction has appeared in Granta, The Independent, Wasafiri, Critical Muslim, InterlitQ, the Istanbul Review, Asian Cha, and the collection And the World Changed. Shah has been a contributing opinion writer for the International New York Times and an op-ed columnist for Dawn, a newspaper in Pakistan published in Karachi. Currently she also writes a column for the Books and Authors section of the Dawn. She has written for Al Jazeera, the Huffington Post, the Guardian, and the Independent. Shah writes extensively about Pakistani culture and society, women's rights, girls' education, and issues pertaining to technology, education, and freedom of expression. Her columns and her blog has established Shah as one of Pakistan's foremost feminists and cultural commentators. She has been a frequent guest on the BBC, PRI's The World and NPR. Shah is a two-time winner of Pakistan's for excellence in journalism. Her short story "The Living Museum", won the Dr. Neila C. Sesachari prize from Weber University’s literary journal, Weber - The Contemporary West. Shah donated the award money to the Karam Foundation in aid of Syrian refugees. Shah was chosen by OK! Pakistan as Best Writer of 2014. In 2017 she was selected as a Ponds Miracle Woman.
Books
Shah's first book, a volume of short stories called Animal Medicine, was published in 2000. Her first novel, Where They Dream in Blue, was published by Alhamra in 2001. A second novel, The 786 Cybercafé, was published by Alhamra in 2004. In 2005, "The Optimist", a short story by Bina, was published in an anthology called And the World Changed ; an essay called "A Love Affair with Lahore" was published in an anthology edited by Bapsi Sidhwa called City of Sin and Splendour - Writings on Lahore. In 2007 Alhamra published her second collection of short stories, Blessings. Shah's third novel Slum Child was published in India by Tranquebar, an imprint of Westland-Tata, in 2010. An Italian-language version was published in 2009 under the title La Bambina Che Non Poteva Sognare by Newton Compton Editori in Italy, where it reached number 3 on the paperback bestseller list, and sold more than 20,000 copies. It was published in Spanish by Grijalbo, an imprint of Random HouseMondadori, in June 2011. Shah's fourth novel, , was published by Delphinium Books to critical acclaim. It was also published in Italy by Newton Compton as Il Bambino Che Credeva Nella Liberta in 2010. For this novel, Shah was awarded the Premio Internazionale in the Un Mondi di Bambini category of the Almalfi Coast Literary Festival in 2010 for translated fiction. A forthcoming feminist dystopian novel, Before She Sleeps, will be published by Delphinium Books in 2018. An extract from the novel was featured in the Dawn's special 70th anniversary Pakistan edition "Seventy+Seventy".
