Fatima Shaik

Fatima Shaik is an Indian-American and African-American author and former daily journalist. Her work explores contemporary social issues, especially that of the "African-American experience."[1][2]

Fatima Shaik
photo by Sophia Little
photo by Sophia Little
Born1952 (age 70–71)
New Orleans, Louisiana
OccupationWriter
EducationBS, MA
Alma materBoston University, New York University
Notable worksMelitte, 1997

Shaik’s research on the Société d’Economie, an early Black Catholic mutual aid society, has received support from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and the Kittredge Fund, and led to her 2021 book Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood. That same year, she received the Louisiana Writer Award from the Louisiana Center for the Book and the State Library of Louisiana.

Shaik is the subject of a film by director Kaveri Kaul, who takes the author to Shaik's paternal grandfather’s birthplace in Kolkata.[3] Shaik is included in The Booklover’s Guide to New Orleans and the Encyclopedia of African American Writers.

Biography

Early life and education

Shaik was born in New Orleans and raised in the Historic Creole 7th Ward. Her father was one of the first black aviators in the state.[4][5] Her mother was Lily Shaik, a native Louisiana French speaker and poet.[6] Both taught in New Orleans public schools.[4]

Shaik's Bengali grandfather Shaik Mohamed Musa immigrated to the United States in the 1890s, settling in Tremé in 1896.[7] Musa was a shopkeeper, who married Shaik's grandmother, a black woman with Creole and other Native American ancestry; Musa died shortly before the birth of their son, Fatima Shaik's father.[7]

Fatima Shaik attended Xavier University of Louisiana for two years before graduating from Boston University with a Bachelor of Science, and New York University with a Master of Arts. She reported for the Miami News and New Orleans Times-Picayune before joining McGraw-Hill and working in editorial positions for a decade. She began teaching at Saint Peter’s University in 1991. She served as the first director of the Communications program until 2001. She served as an assistant professor, and retired in 2020. As of 2021, she served as an adjunct faculty member.[8][9][10]

Shaik was the subject of the 2022 documentary The Bengali, which covers her journey to discover her family roots in India.[11]

Personal life

Shaik married the artist James Little in 1984.[12]

Works

Essays

Fatima Shaik’s personal essays reflect feminine, African-American New Orleans.[13] Her essays written for In These Times cover the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina from 2005 to 2015.[14]

Narrative histories of Creole New Orleans

Among her essays and journal articles on New Orleans Creole culture are:

  • PEN American Center website “Translation, Semantics, and Race”[15] which discussed the subversive political metaphors used by the French-language writing of the black community in the 19th century; The Jazz Archivist “The Economy Society and Community Support for Jazz”[16]

The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and Kittredge Fund have supported her work to read and annotate 100 years of bi-weekly journals written by the members of the Société d’Economie et d’Assistance Mutuelle.

Short story collections

For her work in trade fiction, Shaik has been praised as a writer in “the ranks of black women writers preserving the voice of the Afro-American experience.”[1]

The Mayor of New Orleans: Just Talking Jazz[17] was “the first publication in book form by this native of New Orleans whose keen ear for dialogue and languid style help capture the special ambiance of Southern Louisiana.” [18]

What Went Missing and What Got Found "is a lyrical short story collection with undertones of the blues.[19]

Shaik’s stories have appeared in the anthologies African-American Literature,[20] Streetlights: Illuminating Tales of the Urban Black Experience,[21] Breaking Ice: Contemporary African-American Fiction,[22] and in journals Killens Review of Arts and Letters,[23] Callaloo and the Southern Review.

Children’s and young adult literature

Shaik's books for children include Melitte,[24] a historical novel, which was nominated as one of the Best Books for Young Adults by YALSA, 1998 and praised by The Horn Book, School Library Journal, and Kirkus. The Jazz of Our Street[25] was “a compact cultural history” said Kirkus. On Mardi Gras Day[26] was one of the Best Holiday Books of 1999, according to the Bank Street College of Education.

She is the co-chair of the Children’s and Young Adult Book Committee for PEN American Center and participated in PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature.[27]

Awards and honors

Shaik received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities to study Aesthetics and Popular Culture at the University of Chicago in 1981. As an emerging writer, Shaik was named, along with Rita Dove, David Bradley, Mark Mathabane, and Trey Ellis, as one of five writers under 35 who "...will play a significant role in shaping the future of Afro-American literature in the 21st century.” Fall 1989 by the Forsythe County Public Library.

Shaik held a literature residency at the New Orleans Public Schools Africana Studies Program in October 2002. She was a Scholar in Residence at New York University in 2004.[28]

She is a member of the Board of Trustees for PEN American Center[10] and former board member of the Writers Room in New York City.

In 2021, she received the 22nd annual Louisiana Writer Award from the State Library of Louisiana.

References
  1. "Novellas Jump with New Orleans Rhythm". Jackson Sun. February 21, 1988.
  2. "African American Legends: Fatima Shaik, novelist, "The Mayor of New Orleans" and "On Mardi Gras Day"". CUNY TV.
  3. "Streetcar to Kolkata". Hartley Film Foundation.
  4. Stephens, Brooke (1997). Men We Cherish: African-American Women Praise the Men in Their Lives (1st ed.). Anchor Books. ISBN 0385485328.
  5. "Mohamed Asa Joseph Shaik". The Times Picayune Obituaries.
  6. "Papers, 1987-1988". Archive Grid.
  7. Shaik, Fatima (March 2, 2013). "Black and Bengali". In These Times. Retrieved June 1, 2017.
  8. Dixon, Nancy (November 17, 2013). N.O. Lit: 200 Years of New Orleans Literature. Lavender Inc. p. 540. ISBN 978-1935084525.
  9. "Profile: Fatima Shaik". St. Peter's University. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  10. "PEN America: Fatima Shaik". 15 December 2012. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  11. July, Beandrea (2022-09-08). "'The Bengali' Review: A Woman Reconnecting to Her Roots". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-04-08.
  12. McGee, Celia (January 2011). "Driven to Abstraction". Art News.
  13. "Callaloo". 29 (41). The Johns Hopkins University Press. Fall 2006: 1551–1559. JSTOR 2931164. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  14. Shaik, Fatima (September 20, 2009). "Chronically Displaced in NOLA". In These Times.
  15. Shaik, Fatima (6 February 2012). "TRANSLATION, SEMANTICS, AND RACE". PEN America: The Freedom to Write.
  16. Shaik, Fatima (2004). "The Economy Society and Community Support of Jazz" (PDF). The Jazz Archivist. XVIII: 1–9.
  17. Shaik, Fatima (1987). The Mayor Of New Orleans: Just Talking Jazz. Creative Arts Book Co. ISBN 9780887390500.
  18. "The Mayor of New Orleans: Just Talking Jazz Review". Publishers Weekly. October 30, 1987.
  19. Xavier Review Press
  20. Young, Al (1996). African-American Literature. Harper Collins. ISBN 9780673990174.
  21. Austin, Doris Jean; Simmons, Martin (1996). Streetlights: Illuminating Tales of the Urban Black Experience. Penguin. ISBN 9780140174717.
  22. McMillan, Terry (1990). Breaking Ice: Contemporary African-American Fiction. Penguin-Viking. ISBN 9780670825622.
  23. Shaik, Fatima (Fall 2015). "Bird Whistle". Killens Review of Arts and Letters. Medgar Evers College Center for Black Literature. 7 (2).
  24. Shaik, Fatima (October 1, 1997). Melitte. Dial. ISBN 978-0803721067.
  25. Shaik, Fatima (May 1, 1998). The Jazz of Our Street. Dial. ISBN 978-0803718852.
  26. Shaik, Fatima (February 1, 1999). On Mardi Gras Day. Dial. ISBN 978-0803714427.
  27. Geter, Hafizah; Aiello, Antonio (3 March 2016). "Truth and Solutions: Roundtable on Equity in Children's and Young Adult Book Publishing". PEN America: The Freedom to Write.
  28. "Fatima Shaik". Poets and Writers: Directory of Writers.
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