Musharraf Ali Farooqi is an author, novelist and translator. His novel Between Clay and Dust was a finalist for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2012. His earlier novel The Story of a Widow was longlisted for the 2010 IMPAC-Dublin Literary Award. His children's fiction includes the picture book The Cobbler's Holiday Or Why Ants Don't Wear Shoes, the novel Tik-Tik, The Master of Time, the collection The Amazing Moustaches of Moochhander the Iron Man and Other Stories and the YA novel Rabbit Rap. He is the author of the critically acclaimed translations of Urdu classics, The Adventures of Amir Hamza, and the first book of a projected 24-volume magical fantasy epic, Hoshruba. He writes a monthly column MICROTALK on the myths and folktales of South Asia