Interview with Suhayl
Read more about Suhayl and his work in Spike Magazine's interview and profile.Suhayl Saadi was born in 1961 to Afghan-Pakistani parents in Beverly, Yorkshire, before moving to Glasgow at a young age. While training and working as a medical doctor, in 1991 he began publishing literary work – today he is a novelist, short story writer, dramatist and poet.
Suhayl’s award-winning collection of short stories, The Burning Mirror (2001) was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award, from which one of the stories was also awarded second prize in the 1999 Macallan/Scotland on Sunday Short Story Competition.
Saadi’s radio and stage plays include The Dark Island, broadcast on Radio 4 in 2004, Saame Sita (2003), The White Cliffs (2004), and The Garden of the Fourteenth Moon (2006). He has written articles and essays for several national newspapers, including The Times, The Independent and the Herald, on subjects ranging from Sufism to British Pantomime. He has also co-edited three anthologies and is co-director of an arts production company, Heer Productions Ltd., which established the Pakistani Film, Media and Arts Festival in the UK.
Saadi has also written song lyrics for classical and folk-rock musical ensembles, including the Edinburgh-based Dunedin Consort. Most recently, Saadi wrote the libretto for Queens of Govan, one of five short operas commissioned in 2007 by the Scottish Opera for its 2008 “Five:15” project.
Saadi’s debut novel Psychoraag (2004) tells the story of a late-night radio DJ through a blend of musical rhythms, Scots dialect and Asian culture; it was designated by the Scottish Book Trust as one of the 100 Best Scottish Books of all time. Shortlisted for the 2004 James Tait Black Memorial Prize in fiction, and the 2005 National Literary Award (Pakistan), longlisted for the 2006 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and winner of a PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literature Award, Psychoraag was also translated into French in 2007.
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