Hafsah Faizal

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. She is an American Muslim Her parents are both Muslim Sri Lankan immigrants. Faizal is the oldest of four children and has two sisters, Asma and Azraa.

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.

She lives in Texas.

Career Faizal wrote her first novel at age seventeen. Faizal says that her background in design influences her writing to the degree that she considers to be a very visual writer.

Faizal wrote four other manuscripts before starting the first draft of We Hunt the Flame, which would be her first traditionally published novel. 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.

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

Her next book, A Tempest of Tea, was released February 20th, 2024 from FSG, Macmillan. In March 2024, A Tempest of Tea appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. The sequel, A Steeping of Blood, was released September 23, 2025 from FSG, Macmillan. In October 2025, A Steeping of Blood appeared on the New York Times bestseller list at #3.

Works Sands of Arawiya Duology We Hunt the Flame (2019) We Free the Stars (2021)

Blood and Tea Duology A Tempest of Tea (2024) A Steeping of Blood (2025)

Blade of Honey Duology

Blade of Honey (2027)

Standalone Works The Dark Ascension series: The Wishless Ones (2025)

Anthology Contributions At Midnight ed. by Dahlia Adler (Flatiron Books, 2022)