Samira
ahmed
Samira Ahmed
Samira Ahmed is a Muslim-American author who writes young adult to middle grade books about South Asian and Muslim women. Using her personal experiences with discrimination, she tackles topics like racism and islamophobia to fight for change.
42
Books
Anthologies
Awards & Nominations
The United States
Bombay, India
Ahmed was born in Bombay, India.
She grew up in Batavia, Illinois, and attended the University of Chicago. She now lives in the Midwest.
Her books
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2024
2025
Love, Hate & Other Filters
2018
"Seventeen-year-old Maya Aziz is torn between worlds. There’s the proper one her parents expect for their good Indian daughter: attending a college close to their suburban Chicago home and being paired off with an older Muslim boy her mom deems “suitable.” And then there is the world of her dreams: going to film school and living in New York City—and pursuing a boy she’s known from afar since grade school."
Internment
2019
"A story of hope and resistance aimed at young audiences, Internment gets at the heart of the terrifying state of our politics. Set in a horrifying “15 minutes in the future” United States, the book follows 17-year-old Layla Amin as she is forced into an internment camp for Muslim Americans along with her parents...Internment questions the imaginary boundaries that separate us, and challenges readers to fight the complicit silence that exists in our society today."
Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know
2020
"It’s August in Paris and 17-year-old Khayyam Maquet—American, French, Indian, Muslim—is at a crossroads...Two hundred years before Khayyam’s summer of discontent, Leila is struggling to survive and keep her true love hidden from the Pasha who has “gifted” her with favored status in his harem. In the present day—and with the company of a descendant of Alexandre Dumas—Khayyam begins to connect allusions to an enigmatic 19th-century Muslim woman whose path may have intersected with Alexandre Dumas, Eugène Delacroix, and Lord Byron."
Amira & Hamza: The War to Save the Worlds
2021
"On the day of a rare super blue blood moon eclipse, twelve-year-old Amira and her little brother, Hamza, can’t stop their bickering while attending a special exhibit on medieval Islamic astronomy. While stargazer Amira is wowed by the amazing gadgets, a bored Hamza wanders off, stumbling across the mesmerizing and forbidden Box of the Moon. Amira can only watch in horror as Hamza grabs the defunct box and it springs to life, setting off a series of events that could shatter their world—literally."
Amira & Hamza: The Quest for the Ring of Power
2022
"Amira and Hamza have returned from Qaf, the magical Jinn world, as triumphant heroes—and life has been pleasantly quiet. Too quiet. Hamza is determined to have one last monumental, epic adventure before summer ends. But when sneaking off to explore an old, abandoned castle goes from life-changing adventure to potentially deadly, Amira and Hamza find themselves in the middle of another dangerous quest to save the worlds. One they didn’t bargain for."
Ms. Marvel: Beyond the Limit
2022
"After an explosion of interdimensional proportions at her cousin’s lab, Kamala Khan suddenly has a doppelgänger to deal with! As Ms. Marvel, it’s her duty to help out the newcomer, but something doesn’t feel quite right. Kamala’s powers are on the fritz, and she suspects that this new hero-in-training isn’t trustworthy. And why has everything around her…turned into a Bollywood set?!"
Hollow Fires
2022
"Safiya Mirza dreams of becoming a journalist. And one thing she’s learned as editor of her school newspaper is that a journalist’s job is to find the facts and not let personal biases affect the story. But all that changes the day she finds the body of a murdered boy."
this book won't burn
2024
"...At school, Noor discovers hundreds of books have been labeled “obscene” or “pornographic” and are being removed from the library in accordance with a new school board policy...Noor can’t sit back and do nothing, because that goes against everything she believes in, but challenging the status quo just might put a target on her back. Can she effect change by speaking up? Or will small-town politics—and small-town love—be her downfall?"
The Singular Life of Aria Patel
To be published may 13, 2025
"Aria Patel likes stability, certainty, predictability. It’s why she’s so into science. It’s why she dumped her boyfriend before they went to different colleges because the odds were that something would go wrong, eventually. In a life that’s already so chaotic, why obsess over complicated relationships and shadowy unknowns when the scientific method gives you direction and a straight path to avoid all the drama."
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Transcript
Samira
ahmed
Samira Ahmed
Samira Ahmed is a Muslim-American author who writes young adult to middle grade books about South Asian and Muslim women. Using her personal experiences with discrimination, she tackles topics like racism and islamophobia to fight for change.
42
Books
Anthologies
Awards & Nominations
The United States
Bombay, India
Ahmed was born in Bombay, India.
She grew up in Batavia, Illinois, and attended the University of Chicago. She now lives in the Midwest.
Her books
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2024
2025
Love, Hate & Other Filters
2018
"Seventeen-year-old Maya Aziz is torn between worlds. There’s the proper one her parents expect for their good Indian daughter: attending a college close to their suburban Chicago home and being paired off with an older Muslim boy her mom deems “suitable.” And then there is the world of her dreams: going to film school and living in New York City—and pursuing a boy she’s known from afar since grade school."
Internment
2019
"A story of hope and resistance aimed at young audiences, Internment gets at the heart of the terrifying state of our politics. Set in a horrifying “15 minutes in the future” United States, the book follows 17-year-old Layla Amin as she is forced into an internment camp for Muslim Americans along with her parents...Internment questions the imaginary boundaries that separate us, and challenges readers to fight the complicit silence that exists in our society today."
Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know
2020
"It’s August in Paris and 17-year-old Khayyam Maquet—American, French, Indian, Muslim—is at a crossroads...Two hundred years before Khayyam’s summer of discontent, Leila is struggling to survive and keep her true love hidden from the Pasha who has “gifted” her with favored status in his harem. In the present day—and with the company of a descendant of Alexandre Dumas—Khayyam begins to connect allusions to an enigmatic 19th-century Muslim woman whose path may have intersected with Alexandre Dumas, Eugène Delacroix, and Lord Byron."
Amira & Hamza: The War to Save the Worlds
2021
"On the day of a rare super blue blood moon eclipse, twelve-year-old Amira and her little brother, Hamza, can’t stop their bickering while attending a special exhibit on medieval Islamic astronomy. While stargazer Amira is wowed by the amazing gadgets, a bored Hamza wanders off, stumbling across the mesmerizing and forbidden Box of the Moon. Amira can only watch in horror as Hamza grabs the defunct box and it springs to life, setting off a series of events that could shatter their world—literally."
Amira & Hamza: The Quest for the Ring of Power
2022
"Amira and Hamza have returned from Qaf, the magical Jinn world, as triumphant heroes—and life has been pleasantly quiet. Too quiet. Hamza is determined to have one last monumental, epic adventure before summer ends. But when sneaking off to explore an old, abandoned castle goes from life-changing adventure to potentially deadly, Amira and Hamza find themselves in the middle of another dangerous quest to save the worlds. One they didn’t bargain for."
Ms. Marvel: Beyond the Limit
2022
"After an explosion of interdimensional proportions at her cousin’s lab, Kamala Khan suddenly has a doppelgänger to deal with! As Ms. Marvel, it’s her duty to help out the newcomer, but something doesn’t feel quite right. Kamala’s powers are on the fritz, and she suspects that this new hero-in-training isn’t trustworthy. And why has everything around her…turned into a Bollywood set?!"
Hollow Fires
2022
"Safiya Mirza dreams of becoming a journalist. And one thing she’s learned as editor of her school newspaper is that a journalist’s job is to find the facts and not let personal biases affect the story. But all that changes the day she finds the body of a murdered boy."
this book won't burn
2024
"...At school, Noor discovers hundreds of books have been labeled “obscene” or “pornographic” and are being removed from the library in accordance with a new school board policy...Noor can’t sit back and do nothing, because that goes against everything she believes in, but challenging the status quo just might put a target on her back. Can she effect change by speaking up? Or will small-town politics—and small-town love—be her downfall?"
The Singular Life of Aria Patel
To be published may 13, 2025
"Aria Patel likes stability, certainty, predictability. It’s why she’s so into science. It’s why she dumped her boyfriend before they went to different colleges because the odds were that something would go wrong, eventually. In a life that’s already so chaotic, why obsess over complicated relationships and shadowy unknowns when the scientific method gives you direction and a straight path to avoid all the drama."