Everywhere Stories Contributor Spotlight: Hira Cheema

Contributor Hira Chima’s story, “No Covenant,” is set in Pakistan. It’s one of 20 stories included in Volume II of Everywhere Stories: Short Fiction from a Small Planet, available now from Press 53, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

Hira Cheema is a graduate from NYU with a BA in English Literature. Growing up across three continents has given her a love of traveling and a deep appreciation for all the little differences that define peoples and cultures. For now, the long-term traveling has been put on hold as she lives in New York City with her husband and children, living through a whole different type of adventure.

Hira Chima’s comment on “No Covenant”—This is a story about how customs and beliefs can become boundary lines between people who are otherwise the same. The parallel stories are meant to complement each other and work together to suggest that any two single incidences in a society can be connected. They are connected in that this driver and his son could be anyone. This birthday boy could be you. And these unfortunate circumstances were out of all of their hands. This story shows a society that lives for a promise between themselves and God and that promise is not fulfilled in the way they think it should be.

About the author

I am the author of three novels--THE LAST BIRD OF PARADISE, OLIVER'S TRAVELS, and THE SHAMAN OF TURTLE VALLEY--and three story collections--IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY, HOUSE OF THE ANCIENTS AND OTHER STORIES, and WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW, winner of the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Fiction. I am also the co-founder and former editor of Prime Number Magazine and the editor of the award-winning anthology series EVERYWHERE STORIES: SHORT FICTION FROM A SMALL PLANET.

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