Uzma Jalaluddin

Uzma Jalaluddin is a Canadian writer, celebrated for the successful debut of her first novel, Ayesha at last, which has been favourably compared with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.[1][2][3][4][5]

Uzma Jalaluddin
Uzma Jalaluddin signs her novel, Ayesha at last
Born1980 (age 40–41)[1]
NationalityCanadian
Occupationwriter, teacher
Known forfilm rights for her first novel were acquired within months of its publication

Jaluluddin writes a column for the Toronto Star.[3][6][7] She is also a high school teacher, an occupation she shares with the protagonist of her first novel. During an interview, her friend, fellow novelist, Ausma Zehanat Khan described their writing circle, which she called the Sisterhood of the Pen, that include Jalaluddin and S.K. Ali.[8] The trio of friends offer one another valuable advice, when they read one another's early drafts.

Jalaluddin described loving reading, and always wanting to write, but finding it hard to find novels about people who looked like her, and deciding to write one herself.[9] Jalaluddin started the novel while pregnant with her son Ibrahim, shelved it, then dusted it off, and finished it, after telling seven-year-old Ibrahim about it.

In 2017 Jalaluddin was one of several women the Toronto Star interviewed, for their opinions on feminism and the future.[1]

The popularity of the highly successful film Crazy Rich Asians, earlier in 2018, is said to have triggered a greater interest in Hollywood acquiring other novels from writers with an Asian background.[10][11][12] Film rights were acquired by Amy Pascal's production company, Pascal Pictures, which produced the 2016 Ghostbusters, Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Post and Molly's Game.[13][14][15] Pascal Pictures acquired the rights in August 2018, less than four months after the novel's Canadian and UK debut.

Ayesha at last was listed for the Toronto Book Awards, and was shortlisted for the 2019 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, and longlisted for the Stephen Leacock Humour Award.[16][17][18][19] Hearst UK announces a Big Book Award, with each of its major publications naming one title.[20] Cosmopolitan UK named Ayesha at last as its 2019 choice, stating it is 'a clever homage to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice that you'll love, even if you never got round to reading the original'.

In December 2019 Bustle asked noteworthy authors of first novels to recommend their favourite novels of 2019.[21] They selected Jalauddin, who recommended A Deadly Divide, a police procedural from her friend Ausma Zehanat Khan.

Her second novel, Hana Khan Carries On, has been completed, and is scheduled for publishing in June 2021.[22][23] Harper Collins says the novel, about a rivalry between two competing halal restaurants, will appeal to fans of the film You've got mail.

References
  1. Laura Beeston, Jackie Hong (2017-03-08). "Toronto women on the future of feminism". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2017-03-08. Retrieved 2018-09-26. Instead of being exclusionary, now is the time to welcome and celebrate what we all bring to this movement. The idea of not discounting people who don't look like us or talk like us is so important, especially in Toronto.
  2. Piali Roy. "Ayesha at last". Quill and Quire. Archived from the original on 2018-06-26. Retrieved 2018-09-24.
  3. Chelby Daigle (2018-07-09). "Muslim Canadian Novelist Uzma Jalaluddin will be in Ottawa This Wednesday". Muslim Link. Retrieved 2018-09-26. Uzma Jalaluddin, a high school teacher, writes Samosas and Maple Syrup, a regular column about modern Muslim life for the Toronto Star. She's also been a guest on the TV show Cityline, speaking on the Muslim experience.
  4. Uzma Jalaluddin (2018-10-18). "Success is more complicated than I ever realized". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2018-10-11. Retrieved 2018-10-25. Sometimes I wake up at dawn and write. Sometimes I run around last minute because I'm late for everything. Some weeks, I feel like I can do this, wear all the hats all the time. Other times, I catch a stress cold and want to run away somewhere warm, like my furnace room. I know I have high expectations for myself, the kind that are hard to reach, which means that I also have to forgive myself when I fall short.
  5. "Why Uzma Jalaluddin wrote a Muslim, modern-day update of Pride and Prejudice". CBC News. 2018-09-03. Archived from the original on 2019-05-06. Retrieved 2019-05-18. Set in a tight-knit Muslim community in Toronto, Uzma Jalaluddin's debut novel Ayesha at Last is a love story in the vein of Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice. Ayesha, a teacher who dreams of being a poet, belongs to a rambunctious family and is surprised when she finds herself attracted to a traditional, conservative young man named Khalid.
  6. Ryan B. Patrick (2018-06-28). "Uzma Jalaluddin's novel Ayesha At Last subverts Muslim stereotypes in its look at romantic love". CBC News. Archived from the original on 2018-09-26. Retrieved 2018-09-26. One of the biggest things that happened in my life was I had a great opportunity to write a parenting column for the Toronto Star. What that did was give me the discipline of deadlines. I had to write a new 700 word column every two weeks — it had to be edited, polished and ready for publication.
  7. Ayesha Tabassum (2019-06-04). "Uzma Jalaluddin's debut novel Ayesha At Last is a fun love story about immigrant Muslims in Canada". Indulge Express. Retrieved 2019-06-06. Ayesha At Last's Muslim characters are a far cry from the stereotypes we often come across. There are no gun-wielding terrorists in this debut novel by Uzma Jallaluddin. Instead the author's characters are real, believable people.
  8. Nick Douglas (2018-11-28). "I'm Novelist Ausma Zehanat Khan, and This Is How I Work". Life Hacker. Archived from the original on 2019-05-02. Retrieved 2019-05-18. I also have a little writing circle. We jokingly call ourselves the Sisterhood of the Pen. (We've also tried out the name #blahblahplot). Uzma Jalaluddin and S. K. Ali share useful career advice, Uzma reads my work as I go along and helps me figure out what's working and what isn't, and we just generally enjoy each other's company and love chatting about writing.
  9. Uzma Jalaluddin (2018-06-06). "Climbing the mountain, becoming a writer". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2018-06-07. Retrieved 2018-09-24. My first attempt at writing was a picture book titled Icy Water's Bad Day. It was about the life cycle of an ice cube. By the end of the book, Icy Water is melting in someone's stomach, so actually it may have been a dark comedy about existential despair. I wrote it when I was 8, so I can't be certain.
  10. Tony Wong (2018-09-08). "Why Canadian authors are hot in Hollywood". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2018-09-09. Retrieved 2018-09-24. Jalaluddin's novel has been described as a Muslim take on Pride and Prejudice, as Hollywood looks for the next big racially diverse comedy in the wake of Crazy Rich Asians.
  11. Jane van Koeverden (2018-08-28). "Film rights to Uzma Jalaluddin's Ayesha at Last acquired by Pascal Pictures". CBC News. Archived from the original on 2018-09-24. Retrieved 2018-09-24. The film rights to Uzma Jalaluddin's young adult novel Ayesha at Last have been sold to Pascal Pictures, the production company behind blockbusters like the Ghostbusters reboot, Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Post and Molly's Game, Deadline reports.
  12. Chelby Daigle (2018-07-09). ""Crazy Rich Asians" Buzz Gets Muslim Canadian Novel "Ayesha At Last" Acquired by Hollywood Execs". Muslim Link. Retrieved 2018-09-24. Pascal Pictures, founded by Amy Pascal, has just optioned "Ayesha at Last", a modern Muslim Canadian retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice published by Harper Collins Canada.
  13. Mike Fleming Jr. (2018-08-27). "Pascal Pictures Acquires Uzma Jalaluddin Novel 'Ayesha At Last'". Deadline magazine. Archived from the original on 2018-09-24. Retrieved 2018-09-24. The novel was shopped as interest swelled in Crazy Rich Asians, and it was helped by an appetite to tell a fun story focused on historically underrepresented characters.
  14. Kate Gardner (2018-08-27). "Things We Saw Today: Amy Pascal Options A Modern Re-Telling of Pride and Prejudice With Muslim Leads". The Mary Sue. Archived from the original on 2018-08-28. Retrieved 2018-10-25. In the wake of Crazy Rich Asians decimating box office records, Amy Pascal's Pascal Pictures has optioned the rights to Ayesha At Last, a novel by Uzma Jalaluddin
  15. Maureen Lee Lenker (2018-11-14). "Get an exclusive first look at the buzzy romance Ayesha At Last". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2019-06-06. Ayesha at Last debuted in Canada last year and has already been optioned for a film adaptation by former Sony exec Amy Pascal's Pascal Pictures.
  16. Ashly July (2019-05-01). "Tanya Tagaq, Kate Harris and Terese Marie Mailhot shortlisted for $10K Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize". CBC News. Archived from the original on 2019-05-18. Retrieved 2019-05-18. Other shortlisted titles include the memoir Son of a Critch by comedian Mark Critch and Ayesha At Last by Uzma Jalaluddin, which is a finalist in the romance category.
  17. "Ten finalists for Leacock Medal for Humour revealed". Orillia Matters. Orillia. 2019-04-24. Archived from the original on 2019-04-24. Retrieved 2019-04-24. The board of directors of the Stephen Leacock Associates announced its 2019 longlist for the 72nd Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour today.
  18. Michael Kozlowski (2019-05-02). "Looking for a new ebook to read? Kobo has you covered". Good ereader. Archived from the original on May 7, 2019. Retrieved 2019-06-05. The Kobo Emerging Writer Prize has been an ongoing thing for the past five years.
  19. Ryan Porter (2019-06-19). "Twelve titles longlisted for Toronto Book Award". Quill & Quire. Retrieved 2019-06-29. The Toronto Book Awards have announced the 12 titles which have made the 2019 longlist.
  20. Ana Davila (2019-06-12). "Big Book Awards 2019 winners revealed: Here are the hottest reads of the summer". Digital Spy. Retrieved 2019-07-12. Cosmopolitan described Ayesha at Last as 'a clever homage to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice that you'll love, even if you never got round to reading the original'.
  21. K.W. Colyard (2019-12-23). "The Best Books Of 2019, According To This Year's Debut Authors". Bustle Magazine.
  22. "Hana Khan Carries On: A Novel". Harper Collins. Retrieved 2020-08-15. From the author of Ayesha at Last comes a sparkling new rom-com for fans of "You've Got Mail," set in two competing halal restaurants.
  23. "Hana Khan Carries On: A Novel". 49th Shelf. Retrieved 2020-08-15. Sales are slow at Three Sisters Biryani Poutine, the only halal restaurant in the close-knit Golden Crescent neighbourhood. Hana waitresses there part time, but what she really wants is to tell stories on the radio.
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