NazmAfsanaWorkshop

Urdu Creative Writing: Nazm & Afsana

Find your voice in Urdu — free verse, short fiction, and the courage to share it.

4.8(743) 4.4K learners

Ustad Zafar HashmiUrdu Poetry · Poet & Scholar

18 hours 11 lessons Advanced Urdu Certificate Updated Apr 2026

What you'll learn

Write structured and free-verse nazms with confident line-breaks
Craft a complete afsana with scene, voice, and restraint
Learn from the moderns: Rashid, Miraji, Faiz, Manto, Chughtai
Develop a revision practice — the real secret of writers
Share work in monthly moderated workshops

Course curriculum

3 modules · 11 lessons · 18 hours. Green lessons are free previews.

Nazm vs ghazal: what freedom costsPreview16:00
Reading as a writer: Faiz's 'Subh-e-Azadi'22:00
Image, not statement19:00
Assignment: Ten-line nazm on an ordinary object25:00

Manto's economy: 'Toba Tek Singh' dissected26:00
Ismat Chughtai's voice and interiority23:00
Scene, summary, and where stories actually start21:00
Assignment: A 1000-word afsana45:00

Rewriting: the draft is not the poem18:00
Sending work out: journals, mushairas, and rejection15:00
Quiz: Craft essentials15:00

About this course

Beyond the ghazal lies the open field: the nazm's freedom and the afsana's intimacy. Through craft lessons on Rashid, Miraji, Faiz, Manto, and Ismat Chughtai — and monthly workshop critiques of student work — Ustad Zafar Hashmi helps you write the Urdu only you can write.

Requirements

Comfortable reading and writing Urdu
Willingness to share drafts

Your teacher

Ustad Zafar Hashmi

Urdu Poetry · Poet & Scholar

5.029K students4 courses

A published poet and lifelong scholar of Urdu and Persian literature, Ustad Zafar Hashmi has spent three decades teaching the craft of the ghazal and the history of the subcontinent's greatest poets. His courses blend recitation, close reading, and the living tradition of the mushaira — students don't just study poetry with him; they begin to write it.

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Every lesson has a Q&A thread answered by teaching assistants within 24 hours. Members also get access to weekly live doubt clinics.