Kishwar Naheed is a feminist poetess from Pakistan. In a field dominated by traditional male voices, she was a pioneer of a new, distinctively feminine voice and has produced over the span of forty years a body of work that is innovative, defiant, political, and self-aware. She has received several awards including Sitara-e-Imtiaz from Government of Pakistan for her contributions towards Urdu literature. Many of her books and poetry have been translated into English and Hindi. She was born on 3 February 1940 in Bulandshahr, British India to a Syed family and migrated in 1949 to Pakistan. After her matriculation from Lahore in 1959, she did her Master's in economics from Punjab University. Her interest in poetry arose early in life, when she used to attend Mushairas with her mother and began writing Urdu poetry as a student and has continued ever since. She is a distinguished poet who has won the Adamjee Literary Award for "Lab-e-Goya" (1969) and a Unesco prize for "Dais Dais Ki Kahanian", a book of short stories for children as she also writes for children. She started her career at an early age by editing the children's page of Pakistan Times under the supervision of Alys Faiz. In 1961, she joined as assistant editor of monthly Dost. Later, she served as public relations officer for the Lahore Division Council (1964-67) and worked as a feature writer for the government's Department of Films and Publications (1967-72). In 1971 she was appointed as Resident Director of the Pakistan National Centre in Lahore. She also headed the Pakistan National Council of the Arts in Islamabad. In an effort to promote literary awareness, she sponsored a literary programme for PTV known as "Mulaqat" and a radio programme called "Nai Subah". She has made an NGO "Hawwa"; working for gender equality and women's empowerment in Pakistan. She has produced nine volumes of poetry, eight books on women’s issues, eight books of translations of contemporary resistance and international literature, and 12 books for children.