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Glasgow Writer: Samina Chaudry

Samina Chaudry was born in Manchester and then moved to Lahore as a child. After completing a Masters degree in English Literature from Punjab University she became a lecturer at Bahria College, Karachi. In 1999 she moved to Glasgow, where she worked part time for Breast Cancer Relief as well as Scottish Power. Recently she has been self employed, overlooking finances in her husband’s construction company as well as caring for her three children.

Most of Samina’s spare time is spent writing short stories. Winner of the prestigious  Next Chapter Award 2019  she is at present working on her first novel. Samina is on Scottish PEN‘s  Writers For Exile Committee that publishes the biannual online journal presenting work from Scottish PEN’s member writers alongside writing from people living in Scotland who are from other parts of the world.  Her work has been published by Scottish PEN, thi wurd, and in the book, Tales From A Cancelled Country. Her poems have been anthologised in Poetry Forward Press.

Samina was one of  Ten Writers Telling Lies  – where ten of Glasgow’s most talented writers got together with the musician Jim Byrne, to produce a book and CD.  Launched in 2017 –Ten Writers performed at various festivals including Aye Write – Glasgow’s Book Festival.  The book and cd can be purchased at Waterstones or online and is available at The Mitchell Library and other Glasgow Libraries. A second Ten Writers project is currently at the planning stage and Samina will participate once again.

To Move On – by Samina Chaudry

(Also published in Scottish PEN)

Riz came out of the kitchen holding an oven tray. He put two chicken legs on her plate. It was pink in the middle when she cut through it. He looked up from his plate as he forked a mouthful of the chicken into his mouth.

   Spent the afternoon cooking, he said.

   She nodded. I’m not too fussed about food these days.

   Riz put the bone of a leg piece next to his plate on the table. I was just thinking, he said. Maybe we could take a short trip to Lake District?

   I’m not sure.

   The break will do you good.

   I don’t know.

   He reached over the table touching her hand with his. You better hurry up, he said. I’ve made something really nice for the dessert.

   What is it?

   Going to have to finish your main first.

   She looked at her plate. She’d tasted the chicken but that was about all she could manage. Somewhere in the future the wish to become a vegetarian. Maybe that could be a reasonable enough excuse for not eating the meat.

   Riz had dropped some gravy onto the front of his shirt. It left a yellow stain as he tried rubbing at it with his finger. She put her fork down and nodded towards the kale on her plate. She told him how she once made kale soup but it didn’t turn out to be so good a soup.

   Riz got up to pick his cigarettes from the side of the sofa. He lit a cigarette, took a couple of drags and stubbed the rest into a plate.

   Ready for the sweet dish? He asked glancing at her plate.

Read the full story – To Move On by Samina Chaudry

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