Ahmed Essop

Ahmed Essop was born in 1931 in India but grew up in Johannesburg. He attended the University of South Africa where he obtained a BA in 1956 and later an honours degree.^[1]

Employed as a teacher until 1986, Essop gave up teaching to pursue writing full-time. Much of his work focuses on Indians and their roles in South African society, and include racial themes of apartheid.^[2]

Writings

• The Dark Goddess (1959) (as Ahmed Yousuf)
• The Visitation (1979)
• The Emperor (1984)
• The Hajji and Other Stories (1988)
• Noorjehan and Other Stories (1990)
• The King of Hearts and Other Stories (1997)
• The Third Prophecy (2004)
• History and Satire in Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses (2009)
• The Universe and Other Essays (2010)
• Exile and Other Poems (2010)
• The Moors in the Plays of Shakespeare (2011)
• The Garden of Shahrazad and Other Poems (2011)

Charles Dickens and Salman Rushdie: A Comparative Discourse (2014)

Essop was awarded the Olive Schreiner Prize in 1979 by the English Academy of Southern Africa for The Hajji and Other Stories (1988)and the Literary Lifetime Achievement Award by the South African Ministry of Arts and Culture. ^[3]

References

1. http://www.picadorafrica.co.za/authors.php
2. http://biography.jrank.org/pages/4302/Essop-Ahmed.html
3. http://www.englishacademy.co.za/pastwinners.html