Writer Usman Malik becomes first Pakistani to win Crawford Award

Staff Reporter

11th Feb, 2022. 10:57 am
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Pakistani-American writer Usman T. Malik has won the 2022 Crawford Award, presented annually by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts for a first book of fantasy, for his story collection Midnight Doorways: Fables from Pakistan (Kitab (Pvt) Ltd.)

The awards committee also named as runners-up E. Lily Yu’s novel On Fragile Waves (Erewhon), and Isabel Yap’s collection Never Have I Ever (Small Beer).

The IAFA Crawford Award each year recognizes an outstanding new writer whose first fantasy book was published during the previous calendar year. Over its nearly 40 year-history, the Crawford has been given to only one other book published outside the Anglo countries (Zen Cho’s Spirits Abroad published in Malaysia). A Muslim author has never won the award.

Previous winners include Charles De Lint, Joe Hill, Carmen Maria Machado, and Jonathan Lethem.

The award is administered by Gary K. Wolfe, emeritus Professor of Humanities at Roosevelt University, Chicago, and will be presented at a banquet on March 19, during the 43rd International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando, Florida.

Malik’s short fiction has previously won the British Fantasy and the Bram Stoker awards and been nominated for the World Fantasy, Nebula, Locus, and Eugis Foster awards. His work has been reprinted in several Year’s Best collections, including the Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy series and featured in Al-Jazeera and WIRED magazine.