Fatima Bhutto

Fatima Bhutto is a Pakistani writer and columnist. She's the author of the novels "The Runaways" (Viking, 2019) and "The Shadow of the Crescent Moon" (Penguin Books, 2015), which was longlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her most recent nonfiction book is "New Kings of the World: Dispatches from Bollywood, Dizi, and K-Pop" (Columbia Global Reports, 2019), which argues that the West’s cultural influence is diminishing across the globe.

Her first book, "Songs of Blood and Sword: A Daughter’s Memoir" (Nation Books, 2010), deals with her father’s murder and the Bhutto family's history in Pakistani politics. Her father, Murtaza Bhutto — son of Pakistan's former President and Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and an elected member of parliament — was killed by the police in 1996 in Karachi during the premiership of his sister, Benazir Bhutto.

Bhutto’s journalism and essays have appeared in New Statesman, The Daily Beast, The Guardian, The Nation, Literary Hub, and elsewhere.

Bhutto graduated from Columbia University, majoring in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, and from the School of Oriental and African Studies with a Masters in South Asian Government and Politics. Beyond her writings on Pakistan, Bhutto has reported from and about Israel, Lebanon, Iran, and Cuba for several international publications including Jang, Vogue, The Guardian, The New Statesman, and The Daily Beast. Her journalistic work has also been crucial in campaigning against press restrictions in Pakistan.

In addition to her literary and journalistic pursuits, Bhutto is an active speaker at global forums such as the One Young World Summit, where she delivers inspiring and entertaining speeches on a variety of topics, ranging from personal experiences to current affairs. Her activism extends to women’s rights, humanitarian issues, and supporting underserved communities like Karachi's slum populations. Bhutto's work is primarily driven by her commitment to influencing socio-political issues through activism and writing, rather than affiliations with any political party.