Stay ConnectedWelcome to The Diverse Bookshelf. I’m Samia Aziz, celebrating the power of literature and the voices of authors and change makers from the global majority. Join me as we explore the stories that inspire, connect, and transform our world. Each week I interview an inspiring guest about a whole host of themes and issues while focusing on diverse literature.
Let’s uncover the stories that truly matter—together.
Copyright: © 2025 The Diverse Bookshelf
For the first time on the show, I'm welcoming back an author I interviewed last year - Christy Lefteri! I am a huge fan of Christy's work, so could not be more thrilled. Christy writes about important social, political and global issues including the refugee crisis, the war in Syria, domestic labour, family, loss, identity and belonging. With her new novel, The Book of Fire, she explores the effects of climate change, human greed, and what could happen to the world if thing carry on going the way they are.
In this conversation, we talk about family, grief, healing, leaning into joy, the environment, finding hope and so much more.
Brought up in London, Christy Lefteri is the child of Cypriot refugees. She holds a PhD in creative writing from Brunel University, where she was a lecturer for many years. She is the author of Songbirds and the international bestseller The Beekeeper of Aleppo, which won the Aspen Words Literary Prize and was the runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Her first novel, A Watermelon, a Fish and a Bible, was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
The Book of Fire is Christy Lefteri's latest novel, published by Bonnier Books / Zaffre. It will be released on 17th August, and you can get your copy here:
https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5890/9781786581563
As always, I'd love to hear from you! Let me know what you think by connecting with me on social media.
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On this week's episode, I spoke to the super stylish, absolutely wonderful, and very insightful, Hafsa Lodi about her book, Modesty: A Fashion Paradox.
Now, I know absolutely nothing about fashion, or what it means to be fashionable. I'm typically seen wearing clashing colours, outfits just thrown together and odd socks. :) However, I am really intrigued by the way the modest fashion industry around the world, and especially in the UK, has grown over the last 10 years. I'm particularly interested in whether something so inward and holding moral weight, 'modesty', can go hand-in-hand with something that it concerned with outward appearance, 'fashion'. Hafsa explores this question and more in her book, and we talk about SO many things in this episode.
Modesty: A Fashion Paradox is published by Neem Tree Books.
Hafsa Lodi is an American journalist who has been covering fashion in the Middle East for the past decade. She was born in New York City, and at the age of 14 relocated to the United Arab Emirates with her family, where she attended Dubai American Academy while interning after school with one of the region’s leading publishing houses, ITP.
After completing her undergraduate studies at the Ryerson School of Journalism in Toronto, Hafsa moved to London for a year, where she earned her master’s degree in Islamic Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies. The relationships between religion, culture and modernity have always fascinated Hafsa, who covered topics like honour killings in Canada’s South Asian communities, the use of DNA evidence in rape cases in Pakistan and the industrialization of the Holy city of Makkah, before turning to the fashion journalism beat. While living in Dubai, Hafsa has written for The National newspaper, Luxury Magazine, Mojeh Magazine, Velvet Magazine, Savoir Flair and Vogue India, in addition to working as an online fashion editor for one of the Middle East’s largest luxury retailers, Boutique 1. She is a freelance stylist, and also has a part-time clothing line, creating whimsical maxi-cardigans and kaftans during Ramadan, and statement hand-embellished sweatshirts for the winter seasons.
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TW: sexual assault, domestic violence and grief.
Have you ever read a book where you feel immense rage towards a character? So much so, you're beyond glad that this is a piece of fiction. Well, that was my experience of reading The Middle Child by Chika Unigwe.
In The Middle Child, we meet Nani, who after some devastating loss, ends up trapped in an abusive marriage. On this episode, I spoke to Chika Unigwe about what stories she wanted to explore, rage at characters, systems of oppression, patriarchy, grief and so much more.
Born in Enugu, Nigeria, she is the author of four novels, including On Black Sisters Street and Night Dancer. Her short stories and essays have appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, Guernica, Aeon and many other journals.
Her works have been translated into several languages. A recipient of several awards and fellowships, she lives and works in the USA. The Middle Child is her latest novel, published by Canongate Books in 2023.
For this week's episode, I spoke to the super intelligent, and absolutely wonderful, Parini Shroff. Parini Shroff is author of the 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction long-listed novel, The Bandit Queens - a book which The New York Times has called “a radically feel-good story about the murder of no-good husbands by a cast of unsinkable women.”
I loved The Bandit Queens, which is full of dark humour and wit, unforgettable characters, a fast plot and it tackles so many important themes and issues such as patriarchy, caste, class, race, domestic abuse and so much more. On this episode, we go behind the scenes of the book, as Parini talks about her inspiration and writing process. We talk about justice, revenge, female rage, and so much more.
Parini Shroff received her MFA from the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied under Elizabeth McCracken, Alexander Chee, and Cristina García. She is a practicing attorney and currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Bandit Queens is her debut novel.
I hope you love this episode as much as I enjoyed speaking to Parini :)
As always, I'd love to hear from you. Connect with me on social media:
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On this week's podcast episode, I spoke to the hilarious Huda Fahmy, illustrator and writer. In this laughter-packed episode, we talked about why humour is so important, the universality of everyday life experiences, family, creating characters, creativity and so much more.
Huda's latest book in her Huda F series, Huda F Cares is coming out in October 2023, so get pre-ordering from a bookshop you love!
Huda Fahmy grew up in Dearborn, Michigan, and has loved comics since she was a kid. She attended the University of Michigan where she majored in English. She taught English to middle and high schoolers for eight years before she started writing about her experiences as a visibly Muslim woman in America and was encouraged by her older sister to turn these stories into comics. Huda, her husband Gehad, and their son reside in Houston, Texas.
You can pre-order Huda F Cares from Bookshop.org, here:
https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5890/9780593532805
I hope you love this episode, and I'd love to hear your thoughts, so please do connect with me on social media:
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On this week's show I spoke to the lovely and hugely talented Hiba, who is also a dear friend of mine. On 6th July, Hiba's first children's novel, Safiyyah's War, hit bookshelves in the UK, and in this episode we talk about the beautiful book.
Hiba's book is about a part of history that we know so little about - the resistance movement against the Holocaust that was run from the Grand Mosque of Paris. In the book, our protagonist, 11-year-old Safiyyah ends up in the middle of the movement, bravely sacrificing so much to help those in trouble.
I asked Hiba about what led her to writing children's stories, and what we can do to gently introduce young minds to serious themes and issues such as war and persecution. We talked about cats, strawberry bonbons, friendship, family, courage, dreaming, Paris, hidden histories and so much more.
Hiba Noor Khan is the author of 6 books for children, including Safiyyah's War, How to Spaghettify your Dog, The Little War Cat, Inspiring Inventors and One Home. The Little War Cat, published in 2020 was long-listed for the Jhalak Prize and the UKLA Book Award and her work has been translated into Swedish, Korean, Turkish, Breton, Chinese, and counting. She secretly wants to be an explorer, and is happiest surrounded by nature, especially near the ocean.
I hope you love this episode as much as I do.
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On the show this week, I spoke to the lovely Sara Nisha Adams about her two books, The Reading List and The Twilight Garden. This was such a wholesome, uplifting conversation where we talked about the importance of uplifting stories, hope, grief, community, libraries, gardening and so much more. We talked about our names, and the thought, experience and conscious choices that go into choosing names for ourselves, and those we love.
Sometimes, the news and social media is flooded with difficult stories, sad news and alarming statistics. It can get a bit too much. That’s why I think we always need stories that are full of hope and warmth, reminding us that although there might be sadness and challenges, there is much love and light in the world, and in our lives too. For this reason, I love the work of Sara Nisha Adams, an author whose books are uplifting, warm and wholesome. Sara Nisha’s books are based around community, togetherness, making unlikely friendships, healing from grief and loneliness, and finding and choosing family. I have loved the two books she’s written so far, and I’m so glad she’s my guest this week.
Sara Nisha Adams is a writer and editor. She lives in London and was born in Hertfordshire to Indian and English parents. Her debut novel The Reading List is partly inspired by her grandfather, who lived in Wembley and immediately found a connection with his granddaughter through books. Her latest novel, The Twilight Garden came out in June 2023. It tells the story of warring neighbours, Winston and Bernice, who put aside their differences to nurture and grow a communal garden. What develops is an unlikely friendship, healing from grief and so much more.
I loved speaking with Sara Nisha, and hope you loved this conversation too.
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What happens when two people are deeply in love, but they want different things for their future? Can a relationship, or a marriage, work its way around fundamental things like having kids, career goals and what family should look like? Is love enough, and do we really listen when women tell us what they want from life?
This week, I spoke to Krystle Zara Appiah about her debut novel, Rootless. In Rootless, we’re presented with Efe and Sam, two people massively in love who get married to build a life together. We follow them on their journey as they grow and change in love, but also as they face huge hurdles when it comes to deciding how they want their life to look like. Certain that she doesn’t want to be a mother, Efe finds herself living a life very different to what she truly longs for, and we follow the couple as they navigate through life’s big questions.
Krystle Zara Appiah is a Ghanaian writer and screenwriter, born and raised in London. She has a degree in literature and creative writing from the University of Kent. In 2020, she was one of forty writers selected for the London Library's Emerging Writers Programme. She also works as a children's books editor.
Rootless is her debut novel.
Thank you so much to Krystle for a moving and insightful conversation! I loved every second of it, and hope you do too.
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On this week's episode, I spoke to Eleanor Shearer about her debut novel, River Sing Me Home.
River Sing Me Home is the story of Rachel, who escapes the plantation where she was enslaved and later forced to work for years, unpaid. She runs in search of her five children who had been taken from her over the years, hoping to reconnect with them and reunite her family. It is a moving novel about love, family, freedom, storytelling, resilience, strength and hope.
In our conversation, we talk about the 1843 Slavery Emancipation act, narratives around slavery, re-telling history, the concept of freedom, the importance of storytelling and so much more.
Eleanor Shearer is a mixed-race writer and the granddaughter of Windrush generation immigrants. She splits her time between London and Ramsgate on the English coast so that she never has to go too long without seeing the sea. She currently works for a think tank. For her Master's degree in Politics at the University of Oxford, Eleanor studied the legacy of slavery and the case for reparations, and her fieldwork in St. Lucia and Barbados helped inspire her first novel.
I really hope you enjoy this episode, and I would love to hear from you.
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This week, I spoke to the incredibly warm and super inspiring author, Marjan Kamali. Marian's latest novel, The Stationery Shop of Tehran has been adored by readers all over the world, and praised for its epic and beautiful love story. The book is set amidst massive political upheaval in Iran in 1953. We follow two young lovers, Roya and Bahman, who become estranged for decades, until they are reunited 60 years later in the United States. The Stationery Shop of Tehran is a really stunning novel, exploring what happens when we lose our homes and our country, finding and rebuilding ourselves, love, the importance of closure, and how amid hardship and loss, there is also much to gain.
Marjan Kamali is the award-winning author of The Stationery Shop, a bestseller, and Together Tea, a Massachusetts Book Award finalist. She is a 2022 recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship.
Marjan’s novels are published in translation in more than 20 languages (19 languages for The Stationery Shop and 8 languages for Together Tea). Her essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Literary Hub, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley, a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University, and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from New York University. Born in Turkey to Iranian parents, Kamali spent her childhood in Turkey, Iran, Germany, Kenya, and the U.S. She currently teaches creative writing at GrubStreet and lives in the Boston area with her family.
I loved every second of speaking with Marjan, and hope you do too. If you enjoyed the podcast, please follow the Diverse Bookshelf on your podcast platform of choice and connect with me on social media. I would really appreciate it if you could rate and leave a review, as it helps more people find the podcast.
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