Samira Ahmed (she/her) is an author whose books “Internment”, “Hollow Fires” and “This Book Won’t Burn” are often found taught in Liberty’s core English classes’ “Lit Circles”. These books have been a staple in curricula long before the Liberty community knew they would get the opportunity to meet Ahmed personally in late April 2025.
In total, Ahmed has eight published novels and is also involved in multiple anthologies and comics. Her award-winning books are geared towards the young adult (YA) and middle-grade audiences, with more soon to come, including “The Singular Life of Aria Patel”, set to come out on May 13, 2025.
Her promulgated YA bestsellers include “Hollow Fires,” “Internment,” “This Book Won’t Burn,” “Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know” and “Love, Hate & Other Filters.” Her two middle-grade books are “Amira & Hamza: The War to Save Worlds” and its sequel, “Amira & Hamza: The Quest for the Ring of Power.”
Ahmed is also featured in multiple anthologies, a novel where a myriad of authors each write a short story following a specific theme, and then are combined into a singular book. Ahmed’s miscellanies include “Vampires Never Get Old: Tales With Fresh Bite,” “Take the Mic: Fictional Stories of Everyday Resistance,” “A Universe of Wishes: A We Need Diverse Books Anthology,” “Color Outside the Lines: Stories about Love,” “Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience” and “Who Will Speak For America?”. She also has a series of five graphic novels titled “Ms. Marvel: Beyond The Limit.”
On Monday, April 28, Ahmed spent the whole day at Liberty, the first of the four Iowa City Community School District (ICCSD) high schools she planned to visit. Throughout the day, Ahmed’s itinerary consisted of eating lunch with students, playing games with the Liberty Library Leaders and discussing student questions along with her story as an author in the auditorium.
Multiple English classes and students gathered before the stage in the auditorium and had the chance to ask Ahmed about her life, how she knew she wanted to be an author and where she finds inspiration. She was able to discuss upcoming stories she plans to write and hand out signed books (including the first two copies of the unpublished, “The Singular Life of Aria Patel”) to students who entered a raffle.
Ahmed’s visit had been set in stone since the beginning of the 2024-25 school year. She also visited Iowa City High School, Elizabeth Tate Alternative High School and Iowa City West High School during her time in Iowa.
Samira Ahmed is not the first author Liberty/ICCSD has invited to visit their students, and she won’t be the last. During this current school year, author Tatiana Schlote-Bonne talked with Liberty students twice, and in the 2022-23 school year, Tiffany D. Jackson spent a day at the high school. In pre-coronavirus 2020, author Justin A. Reynolds also held discussions at Liberty in the library.
Diane Brown, (she/her), Liberty’s librarian, was a part of the process of recruiting Ahmed to come to Iowa City.
“How it works is we talk as a library team about authors we would like [to have visit us]… We also look at the Iowa High School Book Award (IHSBA) list to find authors,” said Brown. “[Then,] the library coordinator for the district does the inquiry through the author’s[representative]. She then asks if the author would like to come to Iowa City for this many days and give presentations during that time frame.”
If students have any ideas or recommendations on authors to invite to Iowa City, Brown and the other ICCSD librarians are always open to new ideas or suggestions. Being able to give students the opportunity to interact with novelists is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for anyone and everyone involved.
