Shahnon Ahmad

Dato' Haji Shahnon bin Ahmad (January 13, 1933 – December 26, 2017) was a Malaysian writer, a National Laureate, and a Member of Parliament. He was awarded with the National Literary Award in 1982. He was also a Professor Emeritus at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang. Shahnon was born on 13 January 1933 as the youngest child to a peasant family in Banggol-Derdap, Sik, Kedah; his father Ahmad Abu Bakar hailed from Medan in the Dutch East Indies while Kelsum Mohd Saman was a Pattani native whose father came to settle in Malaya from Kampong Poseng in southern Thailand in the late 19th century. Shahnon's father had been previously working as a staff at the surveyor department, then a postman until the Second World War when the British forces hired him as a clandestine spy.He and one sibling of his were able to attend their studies at the Sultan Abdul Hamid College in Alor Setar through financial aid provided by the intelligence services as a reward to their father for his services - amidst common fears by most villagers that their children might embrace Christianity if they were educated in such schools at that time. After graduating from the school in 1954, he worked as a teacher in an English school in Kuala Terengganu. He served in the army from 1955 to 1956. After the stint, he worked as a teacher in various schools until 1967. In 1968 to 1971, he studied at the Australian National University, Canberra.

After his graduation there, he taught at the Sultan Idris Education University in Tanjung Malim, Perak until 1975. From that time to his death, he was connected with the University of Science, Malaysia in Penang which included being a professor of literature starting in 1982.

Shahnon was also a member of opposition political party Parti Islam Se-Malaysia. In the 1999 general election, he contested in the Parliamentary constituency of Sik (P.13) in which he won. He did not contest in the 2004 general election which saw PAS losing that seat to Barisan Nasional.