Fahmida Azim (; born 1994) is a Bangladeshi-American illustrator and author. Fahmida won the Pulitzer Prize in 2022 for her portrayal of an escape from a Xinjiang internment camp.

Early life and education

Azim was born in 1994 to a

Bengali Muslim Bengali Muslims (; ) 'Mussalman'' also used in this work./ref> are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising over 70% of the global Bengali population, they are the second-largest ...

family in

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

, and moved to the United States with her parents when she was a child. She was raised in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, and graduated from

VCU School of the Arts The Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts (also referred to as VCU School of the Arts or simply VCUarts) is a public non-profit art and design school in Richmond, Virginia. One of many degree-offering schools at VCU, the School of ...

Recognition

Azim and

Seema Yasmin Seema Yasmin is a British-American physician, writer and science communicator based at Stanford University. She is Director of Research and Education at the Stanford Health Communication Initiative. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Yasmin helped to ...

's book ''Muslim Women Are Everything'' was awarded the 2021 International Book Award for Multicultural Non-Fiction. Azim was a co-winner of the first Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary, for her illustrations of the 2021

comics journalism Comics journalism is a form of journalism that covers news or nonfiction events using the framework of comics, a combination of words and drawn images. Typically, sources are actual people featured in each story, and word balloons are actual quo ...

work "How I Escaped a Chinese Internment Camp". She also won the 2022

Golden Kite Award The Golden Kite Awards are given annually by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, an international children's writing organization, to recognize excellence in children’s literature. The award is a golden medallion showing ...

for Best Illustrated Book for Older Readers, for her illustrations in ''Samira Surfs'' by Rukhsanna Guidroz.

Personal life

As of 2022, Azim lives in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

Bibliography

* (with

) ''Muslim Women Are Everything: Stereotype-Shattering Stories of Courage, Inspiration, and Adventure'' (Harper Design, 2020) * (with Rukhsanna Guidroz) ''Samira Surfs'' (Kokila 2021) * (with Anthony Del Col and Josh Adams) ''I Escaped a Chinese Internment Camp'' (New Friday, Sept. 2023)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Azim, Fahmida 1994 births American comics artists American female comics artists American graphic novelists American children's book illustrators American women children's book illustrators American women journalists of Asian descent American writers of Bangladeshi descent Bangladeshi emigrants to the United States Living people Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning winners Virginia Commonwealth University alumni