She knows her life is forfeit if her secret is discovered, but she'll take that risk to achieve her dream and save her family from ruin.

When a royal messenger summons her ailing father, once a tailor of renown, to court, Maia poses as a boy and takes his place. Maia Tamarin dreams of becoming the greatest tailor in the land, but as a girl, the best she can hope for is to marry well.

Project Runway meets Mulan in this sweeping YA fantasy about a young girl who poses as a boy to compete for the role of imperial tailor and embarks on an impossible journey to sew three magic dresses, from the sun, the moon, and the stars. Her writing is represented by Joanna Volpe at New Leaf Literary, Inc.more Her creative non-fiction and poetry has appeared in Jaggery Lit, Entropy, the Fem, and Claudius Speaks. She’s appeared in the New York Times, New York Daily News, Fox News, NBC, NY1, NPR, and on BBC Radio. She’s lived in Vermont, New York City, and Kauai, where she spent a year searching for the perfect mango.Ī graduate of the University of Chicago, she taught high school English for seven years, worked to create over 70 small high schools in New York City, and fought to secure billions of additional dollars to fairly fund public schools throughout New York State. He SAMIRA AHMED was born in Bombay, India, and grew up in Batavia, Illinois, in a house that smelled like fried onions, spices, and potpourri. A graduate of the University of Chicago, she taught high school English for seven years, worked to create over 70 small high schools in New York City, and fought to secure billions of additional dollars to fairly fund public schools throughout New York State.

She’s lived in Vermont, New York City, and Kauai, where she spent a year searching for the perfect mango. SAMIRA AHMED was born in Bombay, India, and grew up in Batavia, Illinois, in a house that smelled like fried onions, spices, and potpourri.

Samira ahmed author