Poet & Journalist
Mahmood Awan
Punjabi
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.
Publications
BOOKS
Raat Samundar Khed
Punjabi Poems, 2002
Sejal
Punjabi Poems, 2017
Veeni Likhia Din
Punjabi Poems, 2012
Fascinating Folktales of Punjab
Shahmukhi Editor, 2018
Pehli Dhoop
Pehli Dhoop, 1997
Edited by Naveed Sadiq & Asif Shafi
Videos: TV, Radio & Seminars
INTERVIEWS
Interview about Veeni Likhia Din
Interview, 2012
Interview about Sejal
Sejal Book Launch Interview, 2017
Interview at PTV about Heer Waris
PTV, 2017
Interview with Kay2 TV
K2 TV, 2016
Interview with Urdu Point
Urdu Point, 2020
My Writings
Columns, Essays and Feature Articles
250 Years of Heer Waris Shah (Part 1)
The epic as written and rewritten for over two centuries
Lal Singh Dil: The Tragic Poet
Lal Singh Dil’s poetry has the power to connect both the Punjabs, and all Punjabis to their shared grievous land
Poetry of rural Punjab
A critical overview of the captivating, romantic and inimitable poetic genres especially from Lahnda Punjab
Somanatha: Politics of reconstructed memory
Romila Thapar debunks the socially-accepted belief that Muslims and Hindus were always antagonistic to each other, beginning with the Muslim arrival in India
Partition of the Punjab (Part 1)
Muslims and Hindus-Sikhs were never fully integrated as one Punjabi nation but they had found a way to co-exist peacefully. Then what really happened?
A case of Punjabi nationalism
Whenever we raise the issue of Punjabi language, Seraiki separatism jumps in to dilute the whole struggle of mother tongue rights. Our friends from South are free to name the language of entire Punjab as Seraiki and help us get it implemented in the province
Nasreen Bhatti: The Rebel Stylist
One of the most gifted poets of our time, Nasreen Anjum Bhatti stands tall among all the women Punjabi poets of her generation
Shipwreck of a generation
A recollection of Anwar Chaudhary brings all those wanderers and post-partition Punjabis to mind who grew up with high hopes of a just society
In the name of Punjabiyyat
Every year’s Mother Language Day reminds us of the linguistic brutality and suppression of the state against Punjabi
The feminine metaphor
Recounting the women poets of the undivided Punjab, a poetic history that lies buried under male monopoly
WW1: Not their War (Part 2)
As WW1 centenary commemorations end, here’s the second and last part about the unique insight this war provided into colonial duplicity and local suffering, and the Punjabi folk lore it generated
WW1: From the War Front (Part1)
An account of the Punjabi soldiers who became the cannon fodder of the colonising power in World War I, and the mournful songs and literature this episode in history generated in its wake