Fatima Shaik is an

Indian-American Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...

and

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

author and former daily journalist. Her work explores contemporary social issues, especially that of the "African-American experience." Shaik’s research on the Société d’Economie, an early Black Catholic mutual aid society, has received support from the

Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities is a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering the education of residents of the state of Louisiana. In its mission, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities pledges to provide access to and prom ...

and the Kittredge Fund, and led to her 2021 book ''Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood.'' That same year, she received the Louisiana Writer Award from the Louisiana Center for the Book and the

State Library of Louisiana The State Library of Louisiana is Louisiana's state library agency, located in Baton Rouge. History The first state library The current state library was not the first. The Louisiana State Library was created in 1838. It was originally located ...

. Shaik is the subject of a film by director Kaveri Kaul, who takes the author to Shaik's paternal grandfather’s birthplace in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

. Shaik is included in ''The Booklover’s Guide to New Orleans'' and the ''Encyclopedia of African American Writers''.

Biography

Early life and education

Shaik was born in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

7th Ward. Her father was one of the first black aviators in the state. Her mother was Lily Shaik, a native

Louisiana French Louisiana French ( frc, français de la Louisiane; lou, françé la lwizyàn) is an umbrella term for the dialects and varieties of the French language spoken traditionally by French Louisianians in colonial Lower Louisiana. As of today Louisi ...

speaker and poet. Both taught in New Orleans public schools. Shaik's

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the ...

grandfather Shaik Mohamed Musa immigrated to the United States in the 1890s, settling in

Tremé Tremé ( ) is a neighborhood in New Orleans, Louisiana. "Tremé" is often rendered as Treme, and the neighborhood is sometimes called by its more formal French name, Faubourg Tremé; it is listed in the New Orleans City Planning Districts as Tre ...

in 1896. Musa was a shopkeeper, who married Shaik's grandmother, a black woman with Creole and other Native American ancestry; Musa died shortly before the birth of their son, Fatima Shaik's father. Fatima Shaik attended

Xavier University of Louisiana Xavier University of Louisiana (also known as XULA) is a private, historically black, Catholic university in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the only Catholic HBCU and, upon the canonization of Katharine Drexel in 2000, became the first Catholic ...

for two years before graduating from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original c ...

with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

, and

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

with a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. ...

. She reported for the

Miami News ''The Miami News'' was an evening newspaper in Miami, Florida. It was the media market competitor to the morning edition of the ''Miami Herald'' for most of the 20th century. The paper started publishing in May 1896 as a weekly called ''The Miami ...

and

New Orleans Times-Picayune ''The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate'' is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, since January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of ''The Times-Picayune'' (itself a result of th ...

before joining

McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referen ...

and working in editorial positions for a decade. She began teaching at Saint Peter’s University in 1991. She served as the first director of the Communications program until 2001. She served as an assistant professor, and retired in 2020. As of 2021, she served as an adjunct faculty member. Shaik was the subject of the 2022 documentary ''The Bengali'', which covers her journey to discover her family roots in India.

Personal life

Shaik married the artist James Little in 1984.

Works

Essays

Fatima Shaik’s personal essays reflect feminine, African-American New Orleans. Her essays written for ''In These Times'' cover the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina from 2005 to 2015.

Narrative histories of Creole New Orleans

Among her essays and journal articles on New Orleans Creole culture are: *

PEN American Center PEN America (formerly PEN American Center), founded in 1922 and headquartered in New York City, is a nonprofit organization that works to defend and celebrate free expression in the United States and worldwide through the advancement of liter ...

website “Translation, Semantics, and Race” which discussed the subversive political metaphors used by the French-language writing of the black community in the 19th century; The Jazz Archivist “The Economy Society and Community Support for Jazz” The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and Kittredge Fund have supported her work to read and annotate 100 years of bi-weekly journals written by the members of the Société d’Economie et d’Assistance Mutuelle.

Fiction

Short story collections

For her work in trade fiction, Shaik has been praised as a writer in “the ranks of black women writers preserving the voice of the Afro-American experience.” The Mayor of New Orleans: Just Talking Jazz was “the first publication in book form by this native of New Orleans whose keen ear for dialogue and languid style help capture the special ambiance of Southern Louisiana.” ''What Went Missing and What Got Found'' "is a lyrical short story collection with undertones of the blues. Shaik’s stories have appeared in the anthologies African-American Literature, Streetlights: Illuminating Tales of the Urban Black Experience, Breaking Ice: Contemporary African-American Fiction, and in journals Killens Review of Arts and Letters, Callaloo and the Southern Review.

Children’s and young adult literature

Shaik's books for children include Melitte, a historical novel, which was nominated as one of the Best Books for Young Adults by

YALSA The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), established in 1957, is a division of the American Library Association. YALSA is a national association of librarians, library workers and advocates whose mission is to expand the capacity of l ...

, 1998 and praised by

The Horn Book ''The Horn Book Magazine'', founded in Boston in 1924, is the oldest bimonthly magazine dedicated to reviewing children's literature. It began as a "suggestive purchase list" prepared by Bertha Mahony Miller and Elinor Whitney Field, proprietre ...

School Library Journal ''School Library Journal'' (''SLJ'') is an American monthly magazine containing reviews and other articles for school librarians, media specialists, and public librarians who work with young people. Articles cover a wide variety of topics, with ...

, and

Kirkus ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of ...

. The Jazz of Our Street was “a compact cultural history” said Kirkus. On Mardi Gras Day was one of the Best Holiday Books of 1999, according to the

Bank Street College of Education Bank Street College of Education is a private school and graduate school in New York City. It consists of a graduate-only teacher training college and an independent nursery-through-8th-grade school. In 2020 the graduate school had about 65 full ...

. She is the co-chair of the Children’s and Young Adult Book Committee for PEN American Center and participated in PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature.

Awards and honors

Shaik received a fellowship from the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

to study Aesthetics and Popular Culture at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

in 1981. As an emerging writer, Shaik was named, along with Rita Dove, David Bradley, Mark Mathabane, and Trey Ellis, as one of five writers under 35 who "...will play a significant role in shaping the future of Afro-American literature in the 21st century.” Fall 1989 by the Forsythe County Public Library. Shaik held a literature residency at the

New Orleans Public Schools The Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) governs the public school system that serves New Orleans, Louisiana. It includes the entirety of Orleans Parish, coterminous with New Orleans. The OPSB directly administers 6 schools and has granted charte ...

Africana Studies Program in October 2002. She was a Scholar in Residence at New York University in 2004. She is a member of the Board of Trustees for PEN American Center and former board member of the Writers Room in New York City. In 2021, she received the 22nd annual Louisiana Writer Award from the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaik, Fatima American children's writers Living people 1952 births 21st-century American women writers Xavier University of Louisiana alumni Writers from New Orleans Saint Peter's University faculty Boston University alumni New York University alumni American short story writers African-American writers American people of Bengali descent American people of Creole descent American women academics 21st-century African-American women writers 21st-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women