Dr. Shumaila Hemani

“Writing in the Wound: Acculturation, Trauma & Music by Shumaila Hemani in Alberta’s Favourite Reads (Westword Magazine, published by the Writers Guild of Alberta)

This fascinating memoir covers Hemani’s journey through three continents, her studies as an ethnomusicologist (way more interesting than you might think!), her growth and multiple awards as a Sufi poet and musician, and 17 years of being denied permanent residency by the Canadian government.”

— Barb Howard, Author of Happy Sands (The University of Calgary Press)

Featured in Alberta’s Favourite Reads 2025

What happens when your scars begin to speak?

What happens when your scars begin to speak?

For Dr. Shumaila Hemani, music began as a calling. It unfolded into a life path through a rare human connection with eminent ethnomusicologist Professor Regula Burckhardt Qureshi, whose faith in her awakened the courage to risk everything for the artist’s path.

Spanning travels across diverse musical cultures and settings, Dr. Hemani shares her testament to truth and vulnerability in the face of institutional silencing, immigration precarity, and the long endurance toward belonging in Canada.

“Shumaila Hemani ‘s work is multifaceted, beautifully lyrical, and crystal clear.” — Barb Howard, author of Happy Sands, University of Calgary Press.

“Writing in the Wound contributes to collective human strength to heal the planet— in such a loving, powerful way.” — Norine Braun, award-winning Indigenous singer-songwriter

Reviews & Podcasts

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🏆 Silver Award Recipient — Literary Titan

“I found Writing in the Wound arresting, thought-provoking, and fiercely alive. Its ideas are forceful and, at their best, unsettling. Hemani’s central claim that exclusion is often discussed in abstract policy language while its damage is absorbed by actual bodies felt painfully persuasive. What stayed with me most was the book’s insistence that the ‘wound’ is not just a private sorrow but a structural fact, something lived in the body and sharpened by institutions, and that song can become not a cure exactly, but a way of bearing truth without surrendering to it.”

— Literary Titan, Silver Award