Fowzia Karimi is an Afghan-American author and illustrator who won the

Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award The Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award was an award given annually to beginning women writers. Established in 1995 by American author Rona Jaffe, the Foundation offers grants to writers of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. The award wa ...

in 2011.

Early life and education

Karimi was born in

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

and relocated to the United States in 1980. She has a masters in fine arts degree from

Mills College at Northeastern University Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...

, in California.

Career

Karimi won the

in 2011. She illustrated Micheline Aharonian Marcom's 2017 book ''The Brick House.'' She illustrated the Zsuzsanna Ozsváth and Frederick Turner's translation of Goethe's ''Faust'', published by Deep Vellum Books, in 2020. Karimi is the author of the illustrated book ''Above us the Milky Way: An Illuminated Alphabet,'' published by Deep Vellum, in 2020). The book was Karimi's first, is autobiographical, and incorporates family photographs and watercolour paintings. The book follows the stories of five sisters, who are born in Afghanistan and relocate to the United States. It was described by ''

D Magazine ''D Magazine'' is a monthly magazine covering Dallas–Fort Worth. It is headquartered in Downtown Dallas. ''D Magazine'' covers a range of topics including politics, business, food, fashion and lifestyle in the city of Dallas. The first issue ...

as'' "gorgeous". It was re-released in audiobook format in 2021. The book inspired the 2022 exhibit ''Above Us the Milky Way'' in Void Gallery,

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

. She was a

Neustadt International Prize for Literature The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is a biennial award for literature sponsored by the University of Oklahoma and its international literary publication, ''World Literature Today''. It is considered one of the more prestigious int ...

jury member in 2022.

Personal life

Karimi lives in Denton, Texas.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karimi, Fowzia Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Kabul 21st-century American women writers Afghan emigrants to the United States Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award winners Mills College alumni People from Denton, Texas