Mirza Waheed was born and brought up in Kashmir. His debut novel The Collaborator was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Shakti Bhat First Book Prize and longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize. It was also book of the year for The Telegraph, The New Statesman, The Financial Times, Business Standard, and The Telegraph India, among others. Waheed has written for the BBC, The Guardian, Granta, Guernica, Al Jazeera English, and the New York Times. He lives in London.