Aisha Saeed is the New York Times bestselling author of Written in the Stars (2015), the story of a Pakistani-American girl sent to Pakistan as a teenage bride in a forced, traditional marriage. School Library Journal called it “Compelling… a cross-cultural eye opener.” Fascinating to note, the author provides an account of her own (happily) arranged marriage in the groundbreaking nonfiction anthology, Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women (2012).

 

Saeed’s 2018 middle grade novel, Amal Unbound, presents the life of a Pakistani girl who is forced to become an indentured servant in order to pay off a family debt. The book was named the Global Read Aloud (One Book to Connect the World) middle grade book for 2018.

 

Author of a new book in Disney’s Aladdin franchise, Far From Agrabah (2019), Saeed is also a founding member of the nonprofit, We Need Diverse Books, a national organization that promotes literature for children of all backgrounds.

 

Saeed, who speaks English, Urdu, and Punjabi, will spend the day with students at Albany High School before her evening presentation.