Markowitz Award–winning author Naseem Jamnia writes speculative fiction for adults, teens, and kids. Their work has been nominated for the Crawford, Locus, Astounding, World Fantasy, and IGNYTE awards. An Iranian-Chicagoan, inclusive writing educator, and pro-library activist, Naseem lives outside Reno, Nevada. Learn more and join their newsletter: NaseemWrites.com.

Markowitz Award–winning and Astounding Award-nominated author Naseem Jamnia (they/them) writes speculative fiction for adults, teens, and kids. Their slice-of-life Persian-inspired, queernormative secondary world adult fantasy novella The Bruising of Qilwa was nominated for the Crawford, Locus, and World Fantasy awards. Their middle-grade summer camp fungal horror debut The Glade (Aladdin, Simon & Schuster) was a finalist for the IGNYTE Award. An Iranian-Chicagoan, former neuroscientist, inclusive writing educator, and pro-library and freedom to read activist, Naseem lives outside Reno, Nevada, with their husband and four furred creatures. Find out more at NaseemWrites.com and join their newsletter at NaseemWrites.Kit.Com.

Astounding Award-nominated and Judith A. Markowitz Award–winning author Naseem Jamnia (they/them) writes inclusive speculative fiction for kids, teens, and adults. Their queernormative, Persian-inspired, slice-of-life adult fantasy novella The Bruising of Qilwa was a finalist for the Crawford, Locus, and World Fantasy awards. Kirkus Reviews called their IGNYTE Award-nominated middle-grade fungal debut The Glade "a scary good time that expands the middle-grade horror canon" and their contribution to YA horror anthology The White Guy Dies First "artful." Naseem has been a Bitch Media, Lambda Literary, Otherwise, and the inaugural Samuel R. Delany fellow; their nonfiction has been published in The Washington Post, The Rumpus, Cosmopolitan, New Orleans Review, and other venues. Naseem is a worker-owner and book designer for Sword & Kettle Press and a writing educator with various literary organizations and the low-residency MFA in creative writing University of Nevada, Reno, at Lake Tahoe. Naseem fights for public libraries as part of Freedom to Read Nevada, the Collective for Nevada Libraries, and Authors Against Book Bans. A former neuroscientist, Persian-Chicagoan, and child of Iranian immigrants, Naseem lives outside Reno, Nevada, with their geologist husband and four furred creatures. Find out more at NaseemWrites.com, and join their newsletter at NaseemWrites.Kit.Com/signup.

Former neuroscientist, Astounding Award-nominated, and Judith A. Markowitz Award–winning author Naseem Jamnia (they/them) writes inclusive speculative fiction for kids, teens, and adults. Their slice-of-life adult fantasy novella The Bruising of Qilwa (Tachyon Publications 2022), set in a queernormative, Persian-inspired secondary world, was a finalist for the 2023 Crawford, Locus, and World Fantasy awards. Their story in the YA horror anthology The White Guy Dies First: 13 Scary Stories of Fear and Power (Tor Teen 2024) was called “artful” and “reminiscent of director David Cronenberg’s work” by Kirkus Reviews. Kirkus also called their 2026 IGNYTE Award-nominated summer camp middle-grade fungal debut The Glade (Aladdin 2025) "a scary good time that expands the middle-grade horror canon." Their contribution to Iran+100: Stories a Century after the Coup (Comma Press 2025) was shortlisted for ECO25: The Year's Best Ecofiction. Their work has also appeared or is forthcoming in We the Gathered Heat: Asian American and Pacific Islander Poetry, Performance, and Spoken Word (Haymarket Books 2024); The Sunday Morning Transport; and Strange Horizons.

Naseem has been a Bitch Media, Lambda Literary, Otherwise, and the inaugural Samuel R. Delany fellow. Their nonfiction has been published in The Washington Post, The Rumpus, Cosmopolitan, New Orleans Review, and other venues. Naseem is a worker-owner of and book designer for Sword & Kettle Press, a tiny cooperatively owned publishing house of queer and intersectional speculative literature. Naseem is proud to fight for public libraries as the Nevada chapter co-lead for Authors Against Book Bans and as both a founding member of and part of the steering committees for Freedom to Read Nevada and the Collective for Nevada Libraries.

Naseem is a writing educator who specializes in inclusive speculative fiction. They've taught at Clarion West, McCormack Writing Center (formerly Tin House), Roots. Wounds. Words., the Carl Brandon Society, Smithsonian Institute, and Nevada Humanities. They're part of the Writing for Children and Young Adults faculty at the low-residency MFA in creative writing at the University of Nevada, Reno, at Lake Tahoe. They also offer free community write-ins and project support via the Heretics' Workshop in Northern Nevada.

A Persian-Chicagoan and child of Iranian immigrants, Naseem lives outside Reno, Nevada, with their geologist husband and four furred creatures. Find out more at NaseemWrites.com, and join their semimonthly newsletter The Tuesday Telegrams at NaseemWrites.Kit.Com/signup.