Fowzia Karimi

Fowzia Karimi is an Afghan-American author and illustrator who won the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award in 2011.

Early life and education Karimi was born in Kabul and relocated to the United States in 1980.

She has a masters in fine arts degree from Mills College at Northeastern University, in California. 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 as "gorgeous". The book inspired the 2022 exhibit Above Us the Milky Way in Void Gallery, Belfast.

She was a Neustadt International Prize for Literature jury member in 2022.

Personal life

Karimi lives in Denton, Texas.