Hello, I’m Farhana. I’m a writer and publisher currently teaching Marketing at De Montfort University.

I was born and brought up in Leicester and read Publishing with English at Loughborough University. In 2007 I founded The Asian Writer, an online magazine championing Asian literature because I was fed up of not seeing people like me in the mainstream. I went on to establish Dahlia Books to publish regional and diverse writing and the Leicester Writes to celebrate local writing talent.

I love books and have always been a voracious reader. When Allan Ahlberg came to speak to our class in Year 5 I decided I wanted to grow up to be a writer too! Before then, I didn’t realise it was an actual job. I was a confident young writer and had my first poem published when I was 11. Writing wasn’t considered a viable career so I decided I would become a journalist. But my experience of the local newsroom set me off in a different direction. It wasn’t until I became a mum that I gave myself permission to write freely.

It took me a long time as an adult to hone my craft and call myself a writer. In 2017 I finally plucked up the courage to enter competitions and submit my work. That year I won the Penguin/Travelex Next Great Travel Writer competition. The following year I was longlisted for the Thresholds International Short Fiction Feature Writing Competition and the Spread the Word Life Writing Prize. I wrote a short non-fiction book, From Imposter to Impact: Arts Leadership in the 21st Century, about my time on the Curve Cultural Leadership programme. My first short play, Risk was developed by Kali Theatre and staged at Curve. To sustain my creative practice I freelanced as a copywriter and content lead for a marketing agency helping healthcare brands to tell better stories. I was longlisted in the Women’s Prize #Discoveries2023 for my novel-in-progress, No Place for a Young Woman.

My relationship with DMU began in 2010 when I was selected to take part in the Amplified Leicester project. In 2018 I returned to DMU to work as a copywriter and the following year joined the Creative Writing department to teach on the professional writing skills module when I created this blog. I have since secured a permanent role in the Leadership, Management and Marketing department.

You can find me on Twitter/X talking about books and publishing @farhanashaikh. My academic profile is published on the DMU website.