Recipient of SAARC Literature Award for 2014, Dr. Tarannum Riyaz is a senior fellow with the Ministry of CultureGovernment of India. She is a noted Urdufiction writer, critic, poet, essayist and translator. She was born and educated in Srinagar, Kashmir. She is a newscaster with All India Radio. She is also the secretary of Poetry Club India and convener for the Urdu language with International Centre for Peace Studies New Delhi. She gained a master's degree in Urdu, a Master of Education and a Ph.D in Education from the University of Kashmir. Riyaz has written more than fifteen books of fiction, criticism, poetry and translation.. Students in several universities in India have done their M. Phill. and Ph. D research on the works of Tarannum Riyaz. She has been lecturing in prestigious institutions of art and literature in India and abroad. Her books are on the curriculam in different levels of educational institutions in India.
Awards
Riyaz has been the recipient of the Delhi Urdu Academy Fiction Award for the year 2006 and best book award twice for two short story collections, Yimverzal and Mera Rakht e Safar < She has also received the Uttar Pradesh Urdu Academy Fiction Award and the Sahir Ludhyanvi Adeeb International Award for her contribution in poetry and prose, the Rasa Javedani Memorial Award and Jammu and the Kashmir Academy for Art, Culture and Languages for the BestBook Award 2008 for her substantial contribution towards Urdu literature. She has received Dr. Shameem Nikhat Fiction Award fir 2017. Her works have been included in several noteworthy anthologies in India and abroad and has been translated into several Indian and foreign languages. Her edited work, 20th Century Urdu Literature of Women published by Sahitya Akademi was widely acclaimed. Riyaz has participated in a number of national and international conferences and seminars and is a special invitee at the SAARC Conference. She also participated in the World Urdu Conference, Islamabad in 2005 and in the Aman ki Ashaliterature festival in Karachi in 2010. She participated in Indian Writer's Festival Canada 2011. She is also a member of the Birla Foundation for Saraswati Saman for Urdu. Her work has been studied in several distinguished universities.
