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July 24 marked the anniversary of the Urdu writer Naiyer Masud's passing. It was one of the greatest honors to get to know him during the last years of his life. Please allow me to share a few links to essays on his work & life.1
"Stay-at-home man" is an interview with Naiyer Masud by Sagaree Sengupta. Here, Masud reflects on the importance of his house in Lucknow to his own writing, both as source of creativity as well as source of comfort & grounding.2 https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/the-stay-at-home-man/282461
Rocío Moriones's Spanish translation of Naiyer Masud's short stories includes an interview (translated 2 Spanish) by her that among other things discusses Masud's reading interests and Latin American literature's influence on his work. 3 https://www.amazon.it/Aroma-alcanfor-Naiyer-Masud/dp/8493724769
Muhammad Umar Memon translated many of Masud's stories into English, and his introduction to a Penguin edition of Masud's collected stories touches on the friendship and intellectual exchange that developed between author and translator.4 https://www.amazon.com/Collected-Stories-Naiyer-Masud/dp/0670088455
My own essay in magazine Caravan (in conversation with Moriones and Memon) focuses on the ways Masud's stories, while full of details about his native Lucknow, still convey a sense of placeless-ness and timelessness.5 https://caravanmagazine.in/vantage/naiyer-masud-short-stories-timeless-universal
"Naiyer Masud ke pandra register," published by the journal Duniyazad is an Urdu essay by his son about Masud's notebooks, & about what they tell us about Masud's writing & personal life about the craft of note-taking and drafting, more generally. 6 https://www.academia.edu/43724390/Naiyer_Masud_ke_15_Register
Also by Timsal Masud, is an Urdu essay about Naiyer Masud's scholarship and NM's subtle, but piercing critique of Urdu reformers such as Hali and Mohammed Hussain Azad's who had condemned various Urdu genres as superfluous and even morally damaging. 7 https://www.academia.edu/43724437/Naiyer_Masud_Ki_Adabi_Zindagi_Me_Maqsad_Ki_Karfarmaiyan?email_work_card=title
My own personal favorite. Samra Masud's ( Naiyer Masud's daughter) speech is a beautiful personal reflection of her father's life and work and what it meant to grow up by his side. 8
And of course, the most important work is Masud's short stories collections. In the original Urdu, these are available for purchase in India with Arshia Publishers. 9 https://www.facebook.com/Arshia-Publications-1470555643160335/
And in Pakistan, with City Press. 10 wehttps://www.facebook.com/City-Press-Bookshop-1574804906077834/
Digital versions of his academic works and fiction in Urdu are also available in the amazing Rekhta website. https://www.rekhta.org/ebook-detail/anees-sawaaneh-naiyer-masud-ebooks
There is also this recording of an interview with Voice of America, which precedes all the other interviews mentioned here. Thanks to @TimsalMasud for uploading this. https://soundcloud.com/timsalmasud/naiyer-masud-voa
