Over seventy articles published on literature and culture in scholarly journals, magazines, and literary editions of Pakistani newspapers in addition to nearly a hundred columns on literature, politics, social and economic issues, and culture in The Friday Times, The Frontier Post, The News International, The Pakistan Times, The Nation, etc. A selective list of articles on literature is provided here:
Review Article: Mehr Afshan Farooqi, Ghalib: A Wilderness at My Doorstep, Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, July 2022
“Reimagining the Humanities in a a Transcultural, Post-Truth World,” in Transcultural Humanities in South Asia: Critical Essays on Literature and Culture,” Waseem Anwar and Nosheen Yousaf, eds. Routledge, UK. 2022. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003039549-4/reimagining-humanities-transcultural-post-truth-world-waqas-khwaja
Chapter may be accessed on academia.edu — https://www.academia.edu/74734176/_Reimagining_the_Humanities_in_a_Transcultural_Post_Truth_World_
“Faiz Made Revolution a Romantic Rendezvous,” Herald, August 2017
“Houndstooth and Gemstones,” on the life and legacy of Punjabi poet Nasreen Anjum Bhatti, The Friday Times, Feb. 05, 2016
“The Language Barrier,” Herald, Oct. 2015
“Shamsur Rahman Faruqi’s The Mirror of Beauty—Striking a Discordant Note,” Herald, Jan. 2014
“The Marketplace of Voices,” in Poetry and Voice, Stephanie Northgate and Ellie Paddington, eds., Cambridge Scholars, UK, 2012
“Manto: The Poetics of Storytelling,” Herald, May 2012
“Urdu Writing in India and Pakistan,” Words Without Borders, Oct. 2010
“A Stricken Soul,” In Memorium: Ahmad Faraz, South Asian Literary Association Newsletter, Winter 2008
“What Upsets Muslims About The Satanic Verses,” South Asian Review, Vol. XXV, No. 2, Fall 2004, published in Fall 2005
Review article, Postcolonial Plays: An Anthology, ed. Helen Gilbert, 2001, in Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1 & 2, 2001, pub. in Mar. 2003
Zulfikar Ghose, in South Asian Novelists in English: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, ed. Jaina C. Sanga, Greenwood. 2003
Mohsin Hamid, in South Asian Novelists in English: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, ed. Jaina C. Sanga, Greenwood. 2003 “The South Asian Diaspora in the Arts,” UGA Series on Globalization and Global Understanding, ed. Sujata Iyengar, transcription of discussion between Bharati Mukherjee, Waqas Khwaja, Sarojini Jha Johnson, and Romita Ray, from symposium on “Globalization and Change in South Asia,” (2001) UGA Website, 2003
“The Gothic Conventions and Henry James’ Ghost Stories,” Spectrum, Journal of the Department of English, Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan 1994
“Oral tradition: Legacy of a Rebel–Punjabi poet, Ustad Daman,” Herald, May 1993
“The Lost World of Intizar Husain,” Herald, Dec. 1992
“Byron’s Cain: A Tragic Affirmation,” The Frontier Post, Aug. 16, 1991
“Sara Suleri’s Meatless Days: Tell Me Where is Fancy Bred,” The Frontier Post, Aug.9, 1991
“The Carnival of Character in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Fiction,” The Frontier Post, May 17, 1991
“Shlomo Nitzan (Israeli fiction writer): Failure and Despair,” The Frontier Post, Sep. 14, 1990
“Ferenc Temesi (Hungarian novelist)–Mendicant of the New World,” The Frontier Post, Sep. 7, 1990
On Korean poet Shin Toon Chun, “Zen and the Itch of Poetry,” The Friday Times, July 20, 1989
“Disclosure and Disguise in Ghulam Abbas’ Fiction,” The Frontier Post, July 13, 1990
“Ghulam Abbas: Artist Paring his Fingernails,” The Frontier Post, June 29, 1990
“Zulfikar Ghose–Hybrid Jazz of No Tradition,” The Frontier Post, June 22, 1990
“Mazhar-ul-Islam: The Riddle of the Self,” The Frontier Post, June 01, 1990
“The Fire of Bones–Fictive Presences in Mazhar-ul-Islam’s Tales,” The Frontier Post, June 08, 1990
“Ashfaq Ahmad: Shadow of a Dream,” The Frontier Post, May 11, 1990
“Ashfaq Ahmad: Eleven Lovers and the Spoken Word,” The Frontier Post, May 04, 1990
“Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi: The Elusive Tragedy I,” The Friday Times, Aug. 17, 1989
“The Elusive Tragedy II,” The Friday Times, Aug. 24, 1989
“Manto: Self-consuming Artist,” The Friday Times, July 27, 1989
“Pulling off a Glasnost: Alexander Tkachenko (Russian poet),” The Pakistan Times, Mar. 10, 1989
“Two African Writers: Taban Lo Liyong and Niyi Osundare,” The Pakistan Times, Feb. 17, 1989
“Taufiq Rafat and the Creation of an Idiom,” Star, Karachi, Jul. 16, 87
“Voodoo & Violence–the Concept of Power in Wole Soyinka’s A Play of Giants,” The Nation, Jul. 03, 1987
“Sea-shells in the Soul–Interview with poet Michael Lynch,” The Nation, May 22, 1987
“Rudyard Kipling: “The Charmed Circle I,” The Nation, May 08, 1987
“The Charmed Circle II,” The Nation, May 15, 1987
“Approach to Middlemarch,” Cactus, Lahore, Dec. 1985
“Writing and Deceit,” Viewpoint, Lahore, Sep. 1985
“The Aesthetics of Post-Creation in Ulysses,” Spectrum, Fall 1984
POEMS (a selection):
“night prowlers in fellowship,” LAR Poetry Prize 2023, Los Angeles Review, March 25, 2024
“if i were any good” and “Tryst,” in Macedonian translation by Silvana Neshkovska, Contemporary Dialogues: 13, ISSN1857-940X, Macedonian Science Society, Center for Culture: Literature, Drama, Film, and Publishing, Bitola, Republic of Macedonia, Vol. XI, No. 13, 2023
“ledger of severance and loss,” Pleiades, Special Folio, Kahani: Writers from Pakistan & its Diaspora, guest editor: Hananah Zaheer, Vol. 43:2, Winter 2023
“only the faithless,” Gentle Visitations, online literary journal, gentlevisitationsmag.com, Vol. 2, Summer 2023
“Yokai,” The BeZine, Vol. 9, Issue 3, Winter 2022, Jan. 2023
“i saw her in al-andalus,” Pratik, South Asian Special Double Issue, XVIII, No. 1 & 2, Winter 2022, Jan. 2023
“Mother,” in Arabic translation by Nizar Sartawi, Saddana, Jan. 02, 2023
“Kughu Kohrray” and “Duke Ndjekur Bulleh Shahun,” Albanian translations of “Kughu Kohrray” and “Following Bulleh Shah,” in the anthology Mali e Ka Strehën Në Qiell (“The Sky is Our Last Refuge”), Festivali Ndërkombëtar i Poezisë, Ditët-e-Naimit, Edicioni XXVI, October 2022
“falling from the skies” and “if I were any good,” in Arabic translation by Nizar Sartawi, in Uruk, publication of the Iraq Ministry of Culture, Tourism & Archaelogy, Issue 58, May 31, 2022
“if i were any good,” in Arabic translation by Nizar Sartawi, Ad-Dastour, Jordan, April 8, 2022
“hold your breath,” in Arabic translation by Nizar Sartawi, Al-Mohatakaf, Jordan, April 4, 2022
Virtual message and poem, shared by invitation from poet Roza Boyanova, Union of Bulgarian Writers, World Poetry Day, Burgas, Bulgaria, March 21, 2022
“paths of desire,” “Night after night,” “Food, where it is needed,” “prickled clay,” “The Blind Horseman,” curated by Agron Shele, Altunis Galaxy Poetry, October 2021—
“Drop the Gun (found poem meditation),” and “a breath, a word,” in I Can’t Breathe: A Poetic Anthology of Social Justice, edited & Compiled by Christopher Okemwa. Kistrech Theatre International Kisii, Kenya, 2021
Four poems: “It is not I”, “i hold a prayer of thorns in my palms”, “if i were any good”, “Without hunger or thirst,” Poetry at Sangam, India, curated by Ammar Aziz, April 2021 http://poetry.sangamhouse.org/2021/03/waqas-khwaja/
“Zikr,” Poetry Hall, Vol. 9, with translation in Chinese, September 2020
Untitled Renga, No. 77, “Airborne Particles: a renga poem,” international project in response to self-isolation during the Coronavirus pandemic, in English and Romanian, curated by Ioana Morpurgo,Observator Cultural, Fall 2020
“On the Second Day,” Singing in the Dark. Penguin-Random House, India. Fall 2020
“Does Tomorrow Have a Religion,” Chicago Quarterly Review, 25th anniversary issue, Fall 2019
“furnace of galaxies,” and “how i deceive myself,” The Aleph Review, Spring 2018
“My Underwear,” “Paper Boats,” and “Poetry,” Blue Mountain Review, Issue 10, 2018, https://issuu.com/collectivemedia/docs/theblue10/120
“It is the end of the world,” “Food, where it is needed,” “Awakened by a hum,” in Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies Vol. 6 (2018) http://pakistaniaat.org/index.php/pak/article/view/346
“Five Mates I Am Married To,” “Khugu Kohrray,” “We Are Old Men,” Chicago Quarterly Review, South Asian American Issue, Vol. 24, 2017
“What could be stranger,” Poetry India, Feb. 2017
“I was born an enemy” and “a breath, a word,” Wild River Review, Jan. 2017
Translation of Nasreen Anjum Bhatti’s Punjabi poem “Shamlaat,” webjournal Umang, Jan. 2017
“Last Spring,” Aleph, International Centre for Creative Writing in English, Pakistan, Spring 2017
“I am afraid of Muslims,” with translation in Italian, Margutte, Oct. 2016
“I am afraid of Muslims” (with German translation), and “I was born an enemy,” Poien Kai Prattein (Create and Do), July 2016
“Primer,” Atlanta Review, Vol. XX, No. 2, Spring/Summer 2014
Translations of poems by Tanweer Anjum, Nasreen Anjum Bhatti, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Ahmad Faraz, Nasir Kazmi, Muir Niazi, Zahra Nigah, Fahmida Riaz, Parween Shakir, and Mushtaq Soofi, for the special issue on
Pakistani poetry, Atlanta Review, Spring/Summer 2014
“Before Saying Goodbye,” and “Wet Wings,” in Fireworks on a Windowpane: Selected Poems with English Translations. Tanveer Anjum. Karachi: Scheherzade. 2014
“My Heart, Fellow Traveller,” and “Go Forth into the Streets Today in Your Fetters,” in Daybreak: Writings on Faiz, Compiled and Edited by Yasmeen Hameed. Karachi: Oxford University Press. 2013
“unclassified i,” The Missing Slate, Issue 9, July 2013
“Farewell,” and “Dreams,” Sugarmule: A Literary Magazine, Issue 43, “Borders and Partitions: South Asia Diaspora,” May 2013
“Piya Torey Nain,” “Aftermath,” “Poor day, poor night,” Pakistani Literature, Vol. 15, No. 1, 2012/2013
“Coat,” with a note on its origin, Alhambra Poetry Calendar 2013, 365 Classical and Contemporary Poems, Alhambra, Bertem, Belgium, 2013
“Coat,” Wild River Review, August, 2012
“Triptych,” Vallum Contemporary Poetry, Vallum Society for Arts and Letters Education, Poets from Pakistan, 9:1, Winter, 2012
“Once,” “Last Rites,” “Paris Spleen at Dinner Time,” and “Basant”) anthologized with translations into Lithuanian in Poetinis Druskininkų Ruduo/Druskininkai Poetic Fall, Oct. 2012
“Going Back,” South Asian Review, Pakistani Creative Writing in English: Tracing the Tradition: Embracing the Emerging, Creative Writing Issue, Vol. 31, No. 3, 2010, published in Nov. 2011
“I Bide My Time,” Wild River Review, August, 2011
“A Prison Evening,” and “Don’t Ask Me, Dear, For That First Love Again,” translation of two poems by Faiz
Ahmad Faiz, Eleven Eleven, Journal of Literature and Art, California College of the Arts, Issue 10, Mar. 2011
“Even Today,” translation of poem by Ada Jaffery, Eleven Eleven, Journal of Literature and Art, California College of the Arts, Issue 10, March 2011
“Don’t Ask Me, Dear, Of That First Love Again,” translation of the poem by Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Alhambra Poetry Calendar 2011, Alhambra, Bartem, Belgium, Dec. 2010
“PK 754,” translation of poem by Yasmeen Hameed, Granta, Issue 112, Sept. 2010
“Kiran,” Alhambra Poetry Calendar 2010, 365 Classical and Contemporary Poems, Alhambra, Bertem, Belgium, 2010
“Silences,” Books and Authors, Dawn, April 5, 2009
“Poem: The City That We Left Behind,” translation of a poem in Urdu by Ahmad Faraz, South Asian Literary Association Newsletter, Winter 2008
“Basant,” Alhambra Poetry Calendar 2008, 366 Classic & Contemporary Poems, Alhambra, Belgium, 2008
“Triptych” and translations of 8 poems by Punjabi poet Ustad Daman, South Asian Review, Vol. 27, No: 3, 2006 (published in 2007)
“Following Bulleh Shah,” Alhambra Poetry Calendar 2007, 365 Classic & Contemporary Poems, Alhambra,
Bertem, Belgium 2007
“My Inside is Empty,” Alhamra Literary Review, Vol. 3, 2006
“Following Bulleh Shah” (original work) and translations of Faiz, “My Companion, My Friend” and
“On Returning from Dacca,” & Fehmida Riaz, “In the Underground Train,” from Urdu, South Asian Review,
Vol. XXVI, No. 3, U of Pittsburg, 2005 (published in 2006)
“Following Bulleh Shah,” The News International, Pakistan, Aug. 28, 2005
“riverflow,” Atlanta Review, Fall/Winter 2002
“April ’77,” “Among Burning Nettles,” “The Tribal Shadow,” “The Legend of Roda and Jalalli,”
A Dragonfly in the Sun, Muneeza Shamsi, ed. (OUP, Karachi, 1997)
“The Neighbor,” “My Underwear,” and “The Lost Land,” World Poets from Iowa, Tong-choon Shin, ed. (12th World Poets Congress: Seoul, Korea, 1990)
“The Sculptor,” Frank: An International Journal of Contemporary Writing and Art, David Applefield, ed. (France, 1988)
“City Studies: April ’77,” Passage V & VI, Erika Boehm, Malcolm Berd, eds. (Triton College: Illinois, 1980)
“Old Age,” Passage II, Robert F. Hlavin, Malcolm D. Berd, eds. (Triton College Press: Illinois, 1976)
Poems in occasional anthologies published by the Quaid-e-Azam Library, Lahore, Pakistan: Next Moon (84); Inspirations (85 and 91); A Various Terrain (86); Silence on Fire (88); Winter Voices (89).
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