Sascha Akhtar
Born in Chaklala, Rawalpindi in 1976, Sascha Akhtar has led an extraordinary life. Her ancestral roots are Baluchi, Kashmiri, Pathan & English & she has lived in Peshawar, Karachi, Islamabad, Murree, U.S.A & the U.K. Her love of stories & storytelling began at home. Her love for Pakistan came from her grandfather, who loved his country terribly and helped it and the poor throughout his lifetime. “The characters in Of Necessity & Wanting are all reflections of my beloved Grandad Haq Nawaz Akhtar. Long may he live on.”
Her debut fiction comes after an 18 year career in writing, during which time she has had six collections of poetry in English published in the U.K. Currently, Sascha is a Poetry School London Tutor and judge for the Streetcake Prize for Experimental Writing.
Natasha Junejo
Natasha Junejo is the founder of South Asian Writers, a community that began from a viral hashtag inviting writers of South Asian descent to introduce themselves and their work. The community has since flourished and aims to platform and uplift writers from the SA community through; features, book launches, speaking events, and collaborative visual ethnography projects like, Our Stories Matter.
In 2018, Natasha was a national finalist in Penguin Random House’s Editorial Scheme and she now proudly leads the Literary arm of the UK’s first ever South Asian Heritage Month.