GOOD GIRLS

In this richly unnerving tale about family secrets and expectations, two sisters are at lifelong odds with each other, their mother, and themselves?and as every hour becomes more twisted than the last, they are all pushed to their breaking point.

Lovely and Beauty know their place: at home, beneath the watchful eye of their mother. Life has never included friends, an education, or anything the sisters can call their own. Their comings and goings are supervised by Farida. Otherwise, they don't come and go at all. That changes on Lovely's fortieth birthday. In a stroke of inexplicable fortune, Farida permits her eldest daughter to go to the Gausia Market alone, with no instructions but to abide by her curfew. For once on her own, Lovely is goaded by the voice in her head to push her mother's?and her own?boundaries. New experiences and old memories abound as her family awaits her return. But with the taste of freedom so fresh on her tongue, Lovely is spurred on by her disembodied companion to hang on to her newfound independence. When home isn't a safe haven, Lovely must find somewhere else to turn. Leesa Gazi is a well-connected British Bangladeshi writer, playwright, translator, actor and filmmaker. Much of her work highlights how the patriarchy and violence affect women--Gazi's passion is to tell stories that affect women and girls across countries and cultures. She is the joint Artistic Director of a London arts organization Komola Collective, dedicated to telling stories from women's perspectives. The Komola Collective is a member of the ITC (Independent Theatre Council). Gazi directed a multi-award-winning documentary film, Rising Silence, that sheds light on the lives of sexual violence survivors in the aftermath of the Liberation War of Bangladesh. Currently she is working on her feature film 'A House Named Shahana' based on one of her published short stories. Since 2017, Gazi has worked with the Global Survivors Network (SEMA), established by Nobel Laureate Dr. Denis Mukegwege's Foundation. Through SEMA, Gazi has come to know survivors from many other conflicts. She is now working with them on the Collective Memory Group at SEMA that was set up in November 2018. Shabnam Nadiya is a Bangladeshi writer and translator based in California. Nadiya is a graduate of the prestigious Iowa Writer's Workshop, where she was a Teaching Writing Fellow and was later awarded the IWW Schulze Fellowship. Her novel-in-progress UNWANTED was chosen for the Steinbeck Fellowship at San Jose State University. Nadiya is a Truman Capote Fellow and has been a juror for both the PEN/Heim Grant and for the translation grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). She is a member of the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) and sits on their Development Committee. Nadiya will tap into her vast network of contacts for blurbs (she has already obtained several, see attached), reviews and promotion to help HELLFIRE receive the wide attention it deserves. (See attached proposal with more detailed list of advance praise, awards and publications.)