The writer and academic on stories and poetry from Gaza, an exhibition of friendship, and the cat rescue website she prefers to dating apps

Born and raised in Pakistan, Noreen Masud is a lecturer in 20th-century literature at Bristol University and an Arts and Humanities Research Council/BBC New Generation Thinker. In 2022 she published the academic monograph Hard Language: Stevie Smith and the Aphorism, and in 2023 A Flat Place (Hamish Hamilton). Part memoir and part travelogue through the UK’s flat landscapes, it was shortlisted for the Women’s prize for nonfiction, the Jhalak prize and the Ondaatje prize, as well as the Books Are My Bag Readers awards 2024, the winners of which will be announced on 12 November.