Samira Ahmed is an American author of young adult fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, best known for her New York Times best selling novels Love, Hate & Other Filters and Internment.
Ahmed was born in Mumbai, India, and grew up in Batavia, Illinois. She has a degree from the University of Chicago, taught high school English for seven years, and worked in nonprofit before publishing her first novel in 2018.
Her young adult debut novel Love, Hate & Other Filters, about a Muslim Indian-American teen filmmaker making plans about her future while dealing with islamophobia, debuted on #8 of the New York Times Young Adult Hardcover bestseller list and received starred reviews from Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal.
Her 2019 sophomore novel Internment, set in near-future America where Muslims are sent to internment camps following a law enacted by the Islamophobic president, received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews and debuted on the New York Times Young Adult Hardcover bestseller list at #4. Internment has been described as one of the "most politically urgent reads of 2019" by Entertainment Weekly. It has also been optioned for film by Gotham Group and Chariot Entertainment prior to its release.
Ahmed made her comics writing debut with Ms. Marvel: Beyond the Limit; it was illustrated by Andrés Genolet and published by Marvel Comics. The limited series ran for five issues from December 2021 to April 2022. Entertainment Weekly highlighted that "Ms. Marvel comics have only been written by Muslim writers so far [...]. But Samira Ahmed will be the first South Asian female writer to write a Ms. Marvel series". Avery Kaplan, in her review of Ms. Marvel: Beyond the Limit for The Beat, wrote that "Beyond the Limit was a fun and interesting story that went to some unexpected places, all while allowing Kamala plenty of time to shine (and to make a lot of funny food jokes)". The trade paperback collecting the five issues was published in June 2022 â Bleeding Cool commented that this coincides with the premiere of the Ms. Marvel television miniseries.