Ryhaan Shah

Ryhaan Shah is an Indo-Guyanese writer born in Berbice, Guyana. She is the President of the Guyanese Indian Heritage Association.
In November 2009, Shah was chosen one of The 500 Most Influential Muslims as a novelist, despite criticism for race baiting in Guyana's 2015 election.
The GIHA aims to promote Indo-Guyanese culture. The organization competes with the Indian Arrival Committee, which is aligned with the People's Progressive Party. GIHA seeks to maintain a distinct Indian identity, and is against assimilation or creolization into the greater Afro-Guyanese community. She has described Guyana as a stop-over point for Indians, seeking better, safer places abroad.
Shah lived outside of Guyana from 1976 to 1997 in the US, Britain and Grand Cayman.

Books

Shah's first novel, A Silent Life, won the 2007 Guyana Prize for Literature First Book Award.
Her second novel, Weaving Water,, deals with Guyanese history in a comparable way, but from a Hindu point of view and with a more chronological treatment.
She is also a columnist for the Guyana Times.