Parveen Shakir is widely considered to be the greatest Urdu female poet. She was born in Karachi - Pakistan on 24 November 1952 and started writing both prose and poetry at an early age, contributing columns to newspapers and articles to English dailies. Shakir published 5 books of poetry to great acclaim, the first being 'Khushbu' ['Fragrance'] (1976), followed by 'Sad Barg' ['Marsh Marigold'] (1980), 'Khud Kalami' ['Soliloquy'], 'Inkar' ['Denial'] (1990), and 'Kaf e Aina' ['The Mirror's Edge'] besides a collection of her newspaper columns entitled 'Gosha e Chashm' ['The Sight Corner']. She died in a car accident on 26 December 1994, when her car collided with a bus while on her way to work. 'After Parveen Shakir' is the first substantial selection of Shakir's work translated into English.