Noreen Masud

Noreen Masud
Born	Pakistan
Nationality	British
Employer	University of Bristol
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Oxford
Thesis	Aphorism in Stevie Smith (2017)
Academic advisors	Sally Bayley & Laura Marcus[1]
Academic work
Notable works	A Flat Place: Moving Through Empty Landscapes, Naming Complex Trauma (2023)
Website	www.noreenmasud.com

Noreen Masud is a British writer and literary scholar.

Early life

Masud was born to a British mother and a Pakistani father in Lahore, Pakistan. Her paternal ancestral roots are in Shopian, Kashmir, whilst her mother is Scottish and English.[2] As a teenager, Masud moved to Britain with her mother and siblings.[3]

Career

Masud is a lecturer at the University of Bristol.[4] Her work has been published in The Times Literary Supplement[5] and Salon.[6] Her monograph Stevie Smith and the Aphorism: Hard Language (2022) won The Modernist Studies Association's First Book Prize.[7]

She has been on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time.[8]

Her memoir A Flat Place: Moving Through Empty Landscapes, Naming Complex Trauma (2023) describes her childhood in Pakistan, moving to Scotland aged 15, and the complex post-traumatic stress disorder from which she suffers.[9][10] A Flat Place was shortlisted for the 2023 Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award,[11] and was a Book of the Year in The New Yorker, The Guardian and theSunday Times.[12] In 2024, it was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction.[13]

Works

• Stevie Smith and the Aphorism: Hard Language. Oxford English Monographs. OUP Oxford. 2022. ISBN 978-0-19-264924-9.
• A Flat Place: Moving Through Empty Landscapes, Naming Complex Trauma. Melville House. 2023. ISBN 978-1-68589-024-7.[14]

References

1. "Aphorism in Stevie Smith". Oxford University Research Archive. University of Oxford. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
2. Silvers, Isabella (22 April 2024). "Noreen Masud: "Whether or not language contains me, I still exist"". Mixed Messages. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
3. Goh, Katie (10 May 2023). "Finding solace from trauma in flat landscapes". Prospect. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
4. "Noreen Masud". University of Bristol. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
5. "Noreen Masud Archives". TLS. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
6. "Noreen Masud's Articles at Salon.com". www.salon.com. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
7. "Noreen Masud wins MSA First Book Prize" (Press release). University of Bristol. 31 October 2023. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
8. "Stevie Smith". In Our Time. BBC Radio 4. 16 February 2023. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
9. "From Lahore to Orford Ness, Searching for the Roots of Trauma". The New York Times. 6 June 2023. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
10. Brooks-Ward, Issy (9 May 2023). "Noreen Masud: A Flat Place - reflective landscapes. Reimagining the feeling of flatness, Masud walks us through her pursuit of a past". The Arts Desk. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
11. "Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award 2023 shortlist announced". Books+Publishing. 27 February 2024. Retrieved 28 February 2024.
12. "Noreen Masud". RCW Literary Agency. Retrieved 10 May 2024.
13. Lipscomb, Suzannah (27 March 2024). "Electric, poignant, exquisitely written: inside the inaugural Women's prize for nonfiction shortlist". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
14. Masud, Noreen. "A Flat Place". Granta.com. Retrieved 10 May 2024.

External links

• Official website
• "Noreen Masud on finding comfort in flat places", 8 June 2023.