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Hafsah Faizal

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Hafsah Faizal
Faizal in 2021
Faizal in 2021
Born1993 (age 30–31)
Florida, U.S.
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • designer
  • business owner
LanguageEnglish
GenreYoung adult fiction
Years active2013–present
Notable worksWe Hunt the Flame, We Free the Stars
Website
hafsahfaizal.com

Hafsah Faizal is an American author of young adult novels, best known for her New York Times best-selling fantasy novel We Hunt the Flame.

Personal life

Faizal was born in Florida and grew up in California.[1] She is an American Muslim[1] of Sri Lankan and Arab descent.[2] Her parents are both Muslim Sri Lankan immigrants.[3] Faizal is the oldest of four children and has two sisters, Asma and Azraa.[4][3]

Faizal was homeschooled starting at age thirteen. At the same age, she first started building her design skills, which led her founding her own web design company, IceyDesigns, at age seventeen.[5][6][7][8]

Faizal names fellow young adult novelists Leigh Bardugo, Roshani Chokshi, and Renée Ahdieh as some of her major literary influences and describes Graceling by Kristin Cashore as the book that made her return to reading.[1][9]

She lives in Texas.[10]

Career

Faizal wrote her first novel at age seventeen.[1] Aside from writing, she also has been running a book blog called IceyBooks since September 2010.[1][6] Faizal says that her background in design influences her writing to the degree that she considers to be a very visual writer.[8]

Faizal self-published her first book under the pen name Hafsah Laziaf in October 2013. It was a young adult science fiction novel called Unbreathable, set in a distant future where Earth was destroyed and humanity settled on a new planet devastated by food shortages and oxygen scarcity.[6][11]

Faizal wrote four other manuscripts before starting the first draft of We Hunt the Flame, which would be her first traditionally published novel.[8] She found her literary agent through the Twitter book pitch contest #DVPit, finishing up the first draft of what would ultimately become We Hunt the Flame just before the contest started.[1]

We Hunt the Flame was published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in May 2019, the first of the Sands of Arawiya duology. It debuted on the New York Times bestseller list at #5[12] and receiving favorable reviews. Inspired by ancient Arabia, the novel tells the story of a hunter who disguises herself as a man in order to travel into a dangerous forest and restore magic to her people.[10] Faizal set the story in a world reminiscent of ancient Arabia, avoiding ties to South Asian cultures that she states are often wrongfully entwined with stories about the Middle East.[10]

The second Sands of Arawiya book, We Free the Stars, was released on January 19, 2021.[13]

In February 2021, it was reported that STXtv was developing a television adaptation of We Hunt the Flame with Faizal as executive producer.[14]

Her new book, A Tempest of Tea releases February 20th, 2024 from FSG, Macmillan. [15]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Q&A with Hafsah Faizal". www.publishersweekly.com. Archived from the original on May 23, 2019. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  2. ^ "This YA Author Wants You To Rethink Your Vision Of The Middle East". Bustle. Archived from the original on September 1, 2019. Retrieved May 24, 2019.
  3. ^ a b Faizal, Hafsah (May 15, 2019). "Finding Yourself Through Fantasy and Culture". Tor.com. Archived from the original on May 18, 2019. Retrieved May 24, 2019.
  4. ^ "#DVPit Faizal-Cusick". dvpit.com. Retrieved May 24, 2019.[permanent dead link‍]
  5. ^ Cuadrado, Dana (May 13, 2019). "Debut Author Hafsah Faizal Shares Her Road to Publishing We Hunt the Flame". Bookish. Archived from the original on May 15, 2019. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  6. ^ a b c "Badass Ladies You Should Know: Hafsah Faizal". Kate Hart. Archived from the original on June 21, 2021. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  7. ^ "PW KidsCast: A Conversation with Hafsah Faizal". www.publishersweekly.com. Archived from the original on June 9, 2019. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  8. ^ a b c "Author/Designer Hafsah Faizal on Writing We Hunt the Flame". SPINE. Archived from the original on April 26, 2021. Retrieved May 24, 2019.
  9. ^ Tales, Miss Blue Fairy (May 14, 2019). "Q&A! We Hunt the Flame, Hafsah Faizal". Blue Fairy Tales. Archived from the original on March 17, 2020. Retrieved May 24, 2019.
  10. ^ a b c Hershberger, Katy. "First Flames: An Interview Between Debut Authors Hafsah Faizal and Nafiza Azad". School Library Journal. Archived from the original on May 17, 2019. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
  11. ^ "Books". Archived from the original on November 13, 2016. Retrieved May 24, 2019.
  12. ^ "Young Adult Hardcover Books - Best Sellers - The New York Times". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 21, 2019. Retrieved May 24, 2019.
  13. ^ "We Hunt the Flame". We Hunt the Flame. February 5, 2019. Archived from the original on May 21, 2019. Retrieved May 24, 2019.
  14. ^ Del Rosario, Alexandra (February 22, 2021). "STXtv Developing TV Adaptation Of Hafsah Faizal's YA Fantasy Adventure Novel 'We Hunt The Flame'". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on February 21, 2021. Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  15. ^ "A Tempest of Tea • Hafsah Faizal". Hafsah Faizal. Archived from the original on October 30, 2021. Retrieved September 4, 2021.
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