PMahmood Awan is a Punjabi Poet and The News on Sunday Columnist. He was born in Padhrar (Khushab) and educated in Sargodha and Lahore. He is the ultimate lover, the Aashiq of the undivided land of five rivers – The Punjab.

Mahmood Awan is an award-winning author of three books of Punjabi poetry Raat Samundar Khed (Let’s play with the night sea; 2002), Veeni Likhia Din (A day etched at her wrist; 2012) and Sejal (Dampness; 2017). He was co-editor of a bilingual, tri-scripted (Shahmukhi, Gurmukhi & English) book for Children “Fascinating Folktales of Punjab: Undivided Punjab Edition”. He is well-versed in Gurmukhi script and his poetry has been part of magazines and poetry anthologies published across the barbed wire of Wagah. Awan enjoys translating international poets in Punjabi and has translated Heaney, Cavafy, Ritsos, Carlos Drummond, Jaimie Sabeen, Ernesto Cardinal, Josef Hanzlik, Vladmiri Holan, Agha Shahid Ali and others. Awan wrote Urdu Ghazals and poems too. His selected Ghazals were included in ‘Pehli Dhoop’ (1997), which was 1st ever Student Poetry Anthology in Pakistan published during his Engineering University Lahore (UET) years. 

Awan is a columnist and contributing writer for The News on Sunday, a leading English Newspaper in Pakistan where he writes about Punjabi themes, culture and Punjabi internationalism. He has appeared on a number of TV and Radio channels including PTV & BBC. He represented Punjab and Punjabi at International Literature Festivals and Universities including Bradford Literature Festival, LUMS, SOAS Univeristy of London, University of Sargodha, Govt. College Univeristy, Faisalabad, UET Lahore, SZABIST Islamabad and many others. Awan’s research papers on WW1, Punjab’s military service and Punjabi folklore were extensively quoted in media and international research publications including Cambridge University Press (UK). Awan’s other interest areas are Partition, Colonialism, Punjab’s military experience, the Punjabi language, Punjabiyyat, and popular Punjabi culture.

An M.Phil (Post-Graduate; Pre-PhD) degree was awarded on Mahmood Awan’s poetry and literary contributions under a research dissertation titled: “Mahmood Awan di Punjabi Adab  nu dain” by University of the Punjab; Institute of Punjabi and Cultural Studies (Lahore, Pakistan) in 2023. While Awan’s poem Ni Maa’ay ( O’ Mother) is part of the B.SC Punjabi syllabus (4th Semester; Course Code: 2203) at Govt. College Univeristy (GC) Lahore. 

Mahmood Awan received his Electrical & Electronics Engineering degree from the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore and after working in the Middle East and Pakistan, he decided to call Ireland his 2nd home where he lives & works in Dublin, Ireland.