Aftab Ahmad is a Senior Lecturer in Hindi-Urdu at Columbia University, where he has taught since 2010. Prior to this, he taught at UC Berkeley (2006–2010) and directed the American Institute of Indian Studies’ Urdu Language Program in Lucknow (2001–2006). He holds an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in Urdu literature from Jawaharlal Nehru University, as well as a B.A. in Modern Indian History from Aligarh Muslim University.
Ahmad is an accomplished translator specializing in Urdu and Hindi literature. His translation of Geetanjali Shree’s Hindi novel Ret Samadhi (Tomb of Sand), which won the 2022 International Booker Prize, was published in Urdu in 2023. His translation of Shree’s Hamara Shahar Us Baras (Our City That Year) is set for release in 2024. Ahmad also translated Anil Prabha Kumar’s Hindi novel Sitaaron Men Soorakh (Holes in the Stars) into Urdu, which was published in 2024.
Ahmad’s Hindi translations of essays, articles, and short stories from English and Urdu have been published in many notable Hindi journals in India. He has also translated several short stories by Slovenian author Lili Potpar into both Hindi and Urdu.
Ahmad co-translated Bombay Stories (a collection of Urdu short stories) by Saadat Hasan Manto with Matt Reeck, as well as several short stories and essays by Syed Muhammad Ashraf and Ahmed Shah Patras Bukhari. He is a co-winner of the PEN-Heim Translation Grant, awarded with Matt Reeck for translating a humorous excerpt from Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi’s novel Aab-e-Gum, which they later co-translated as Mirages of the Mind. He has also translated Aab-e-Gum into Hindi, as well as Yousufi’s humorous autobiography Zarguzasht (My Pseudoautobiography) and two collections of his essays, Chiragh Tale (Beneath the Lamp) and Khakum Badahn (May Dirt Be In My Mouth).
In collaboration with artist and translator Daisy Rockwell, Ahmad has translated poems by Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost, and others into Urdu. Rockwell, the winner of the 2022 International Booker Prize for her translation of Ret Samadhi (Tomb of Sand), incorporates these translations into her artwork through calligraphy.