Ahmed Essop

Ahmed Essop was born in 1931 in India but grew up in Johannesburg. He attended the University of South Africa where he obtained a BA in 1956 and later an honours degree.^[1]

Employed as a teacher until 1986, Essop gave up teaching to pursue writing full-time. Much of his work focuses on Indians and their roles in South African society, and include racial themes of apartheid.^[2]

Writings

• The Dark Goddess (1959) (as Ahmed Yousuf)
• The Visitation (1979)
• The Emperor (1984)
• The Hajji and Other Stories (1988)
• Noorjehan and Other Stories (1990)
• The King of Hearts and Other Stories (1997)
• The Third Prophecy (2004)
• History and Satire in Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses (2009)
• The Universe and Other Essays (2010)
• Exile and Other Poems (2010)
• The Moors in the Plays of Shakespeare (2011)
• The Garden of Shahrazad and Other Poems (2011)

Charles Dickens and Salman Rushdie: A Comparative Discourse (2014)

Essop was awarded the Olive Schreiner Prize in 1979 by the English Academy of Southern Africa for The Hajji and Other Stories (1988).^[3]

References

1. http://www.picadorafrica.co.za/authors.php
2. http://biography.jrank.org/pages/4302/Essop-Ahmed.html
3. http://www.englishacademy.co.za/pastwinners.html