Sayeeda Jaigirdar

Sayeeda Jaigirdar was born in the leafy tea-garden district of Sylhet, Bangladesh and grew up in three continents as she traveled with her father who was a diplomat. She had her education in London, Sweden, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. After completing her Masters, she was a lecturer in English at Dhaka University for some years. Jaigirdar immigrated to Canada in 1998 and now lives, writes and teaches in Edmonton.

She received the Toronto Arts Council Award for Emerging Writers 2007 for her novel-in-progress, The Song of the Jamdanee Sari. Jaigirdar worked on the novel with her mentors through the well-reputed Humber School for Writers Writing program in Toronto. She has published in literary anthologies (TOK: Writing the New Toronto) in Toronto and written monthly columns for South Asian newspapers including The Daily Star. Her writing explores the relationship between character, time and space.