Farhana Shaikh is a writer and publisher born in Leicester. She established Dahlia Books, a small press from the corner of her kitchen. Farhana won the Penguin/Travelex Next Great Travel Writer prize. She was longlisted for the Spread the Word Life Writing Prize for her memoir about growing up in 1980s Leicester. Her short play Risk was produced as part of Kali Theatre’s discovery programme and staged at Curve Leicester. Her first novel, No Place for a Young Woman was longlisted in the Women’s Prize/CBC Creative #Discoveries2023. She reads for the VS Pritchett Prize and manages the Leicester Writes Short Story Prize. Farhana teaches marketing at De Montfort University and is the project lead for the Middle Way Mentoring project. Find her on X/Twitter @farhanashaikh.