Sheba Karim Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Sheba Karim is an upcoming author from America, who is known to write fiction and young adult books. She is particularly famous for writing the standalone novel titled Skunk Girl. Other than that, she has written 2 more standalone books in her career, which are equally successful as her first book. Author Karim is a debutante author and a fresh new voice in the world of fiction writing. Her book, Skunk Girl, is an easy read and had generous elements of honesty and humor as Karim ushers the readers through cribs, comparisons, and crushes. Author Karim was born and brought up in Catskill, New York. She completed her graduation from the Law School of the New York University. Karim also holds an MFA from the Writers’ Workshop of Iowa. Author Karim’s debut young adult novel, Skunk Girl, was released in the US, Italy, India, Sweden, and Denmark. This book was selected for the Reads Program of Silicon Valley in 2012. Karim’s work has featured in a few anthologies and literary magazines throughout India and United States. She was a Fulbright Nehru Scholar in 2009-10 in Delhi, India. Karim was chosen as Remy Cointreau in the Spring of 2011. She has also been given residencies at Ledig House, Hedgebrook, Millay Colony, and Kimmel Nelson Harding Arts Center. In her second young adult novel, Karim has described complex characters of the Muslim-American descent. Her characters from this book seem to defy the conventional stereotypes. The story takes place against the backdrop of Urdu poetry metaphors and Radiohead’s music. Her 3rd book, The Road Trip Effect, revolves around three best friends from South Asia living in the United States. The friends go on a Southern road trip and discover aspects of their lives. Besides writing the young adult stories, author Karim has edited an anthology called Alchemy. Her works have appeared in Asia Literary Review, 580 Split, Off Assignment, The Rumpus, barn Owl Review, Shenandoah, Femina, Time Out Delhi, Literary Hub, and in a other anthologies across India and America.

Currently, Karim is working on developing a historical fiction book about a Muslim queen from the 13th century. The Ayesha Pande Literacy represents author Karim. She was raised on Rip Van Winkle’s lovely land and attended college in Philadelphia. After spending several years in New York City, author Karim moved to New Delhi for an academic course. As of today, she is settled in Nashville, Tennessee. Author Karim says that she has been involved in writing from a very long time. When she was small, she used to write in spiral notebooks with illustrations. However, she was not able to complete any of those novels. Karim was always encouraged by her parents in whatever she took up and writing was one of them. As her parents are Pakistani immigrants, they wanted her to pursue engineering or medicine. Karim’s interest in writing faded away when she was in high school. She went to graduate in law and began practicing family law. However, she soon became bored with the law practice and realized that she best suited to write stories. Therefore, author Karim started writing again. She enrolled herself for an MFA in creative writing. Later, she quit her law career completely and started writing as a full time writer.

Skunk Girl was the first book of Sheba Karim’s writing career. It was released by the Farrar Straus Giroux publishers in the year 2009. Author Karim has mentioned the central character in the book’s plot as Nina Khan. At the start of the story, it is shown that Nina Khan is pretty much bored with the act of Pakistani uncles and aunties in finding marriage proposals for her. However, they do not have high grades for her with the respect to a typical would be bride from Pakistan and Nina Khan knows it very well. She is aware that she does a lot of things that are not considered up to the modern society standards and because of which she is not rated high in the unofficial point system of Pakistani prestige. Some of the acts that Nina Khan is involved in include getting excellent grades in school, obeying her parents, not socializing, not drinking alcoholic beverages, and being obsessed about Asher Richelli. Unlike every other person in Nina’s life, Asher seems to talk to her nicely and does not think that she is a freak. However, he feels disturbed by looking at the hair-line around her neck. The book appears to be a funny description of the life of a smart, lovable and sassy girl, who is forced to tackle her family, friends, and love. Nina Khan learns from her life experiences that two cultures can be embraced easily, but things tend to get out of hands sometimes.

Another mind bowing young adult story described by author Karim is called ‘That Thing We Call A Heart’. This novel was published in 2017 by the HarperTeen publication. The chief character introduced into the plot of this book is Shabnam Qureshi. The others include Farah and Jamie. At the beginning of the book, Shabnam Qureshi is depicted as an imaginative and a funny teenage girl of the Pakistani-American origin. She studies at a private school in New Jersey. Shabnam has a best friend named Farah. When Farah begins to wear a headscarf without talking to her about it, their friendship begins to unravel new aspects. Shabnam hooks up with a racist boy from her school and tells a great lie about a family tragedy that happened during the 1957 partition. After doing all this in her life, Shabnam Qureshi thinks that she is ready to see the end of her high school. During the summer holidays, she becomes bored and regrets being away from school. However, she hopes that the vacation will end soon and she starts going to college. Later, Shabnam meets a boy named Jamie, who helps her get a job in the pie shack of his auntie. Jamie meets Shabnam at the shop every day. Slowly, Shabnam begins to like Jamie and imagines him and herself as the poetic characters from Urdu poetry. Jamie too finds her pretty fascinating. When Farah comes to know about Shabnam’s growing closeness with Jamie, she becomes worried because she does not think that Jamie is a trustworthy boy. Farah helps Shabnam to uncover Jamie’s reality. This rebuilds the friendship of the two girls and start spending time with each other once again. This experience makes Shabnam learn some powerful lessons about love’s importance in life.