Shannon Chakraborty

The book with sprayed yellow edges in a banner

Preorder alert!

Amina's off on a dangerous mission to steal a spindle from a mysterious sorceress in THE TAPESTRY OF FATE, @shannonchakraborty.bsky.social's epic sequel to The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi.

Signed Exclusive Edition with sprayed edges: www.waterstones.com/book/the-tap...

🪐💙📚
#SFF

Photo of a map of the ancient city of Assur with a section in the middle zoomed in on in a separate box in the bottom right corner. The zoomed in part shows the plan of the house for a goldsmith archive

Well this 2,600-year-old clay letter was a journey.

It comes from the archive of a goldsmith named Nabû-zeru-iddin in the heart of ancient Assyria. We’ve got someone left on read, a lawsuit, a mean step-mom, and people who get drunk and steal silver.

It was a wonderful discussion, talking about everything from magic to gender, identity and criminal charlatans--as well as the politics and craft of writing historical fantasy.

A Sea of Sorcery: Roundtable with Shannon Chakraborty produced by Shireen Hamza and featuring Fahad Bishara, KD Thompson, Liana Saif, Mahmood Kooria, Rebecca Hankins, and Samantha Pellegr...

Delighted to finally share this episode of The Ottoman History Podcast doing a historical deep dive on The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi
www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2025/11/chak...

Also, very early galleys of The Tapestry of Fate are in! I'm so excited to start seeing Amina's next adventure out in the wild

I cannot emphasize enough how incredibly honored I was to have my work engaged with at this level (my nerdy heart all but swooned) and the discussion and insights were fascinating.

Finally sharing possibly the coolest thing that's happened to me this year. Al-'Usur al-Wusta, in connection with the Ottoman History Podcast, organized a round table discussion on The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi. The essays can be found here, with the podcast episode soon to come!

thank you for taking part in this!

You can reply with or DM me a receipt (please block out personal details!) I can match up to $1000

In honor of Mother's Day, I'll be matching donations to Believers Bail Out and the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund. Please consider a donation! No parents should be facing wrongful imprisonment or occupation.

believersbailout.org

humanappealusa.org/donate

One of the best perks of being a writer: early books! Cannot wait to dive into these three once revisions are done and my brain ceases being mush

What a lovely discovery (and thread!)

And since I'm already logged in, might as well share the snippet I posted on Instagram from the upcoming sequel to The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi!

And the cityscape on the edges...ack, I love it. Pre-orders available now if you're interested! www.harpercollins.com/products/the...

Alternative cover of The City of Brass

I'm not very active here but just had to share the stunning cover of The City of Brass deluxe collector's edition. Look at Nahri! Look at CAIRO!

But I'm always happy for more recommendations so drop them here!

you're very welcome!

My starting list was quite long but I decided to narrow in on stories set in our real past and featured Ursula Le Guin, @shelleyparkerchan.bsky.social, @gwillow.me, Saygin Ersine, @pdjeliclark.bsky.social, Alaya Dawn Johnson, @silviamg.bsky.social, @nghivo.bsky.social , and @amayor.bsky.social

Historical Fantasy Novels Offer a Magical Escape Into the Past The author of “The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi” recommends fantastical tales grounded in real history.

I was very excited to share a few of my favorite historical fantasies (set in our world) over at @nytimes.com last week:

Historical Fantasy Novels Offer a Magical Escape Into the Past www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/b...

Samsi, “Queen of the Arabs”, and Her Fight Against Assyria - The Ancient Near East Today The women referred to in Assyrian inscriptions as “Queen of the Arabs” have been a passing footnote in Neo-Assyrian history — until now. Here is the story of one of them.

Ancient Assyrian kings didn’t just go to war with other kings.

They battled queens of the Arabian peninsula, including the formidable Queen Samsi who may even be depicted on a lost stone relief mid-battle on the back of a camel. Fascinating piece by Ellie Bennet anetoday.org/samsi-queen-...

I'm so excited to read your book!

The story of ancient Mesopotamia and the dawn of the modern world Ancient Mesopotamia comes alive in Moudhy Al-Rashid's must-read, millennia-spanning history, cleverly wrought from tablets written in the world's oldest script

After reading this review by Emily H. Wilson, I sat in my car and wept happy tears.

"a new and spellbinding book"

"must-read, millennia-spanning history"

I'm speechless with gratitude and pure joy. www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...

i just found out that you can briskly walk the distance from the house of the prophet abraham to the house of ea-nasir the copper trader in under a minute and i genuinely don't know what to do with that information

Being a person with deadly, incurable cancer who is nonetheless still alive for an indefinite timeframe gives me an interesting metaphor that helps me deal with things like large-scale corruption in government or commerce.

Bear with me for a second while I try to explain.

I have access to a little flailing figure and the volume. Helpful

A rare morning I have a chance to do some writing before the kids wake up and I open my computer to this 😭

I did! The application should have gone through 😊

It drives me me nuts that people don't learn how widespread inoculation was in much of the world previous to Europeans learning of it

And since we’re doing this conversation again for the umpteenth time, and since people tend to associate the Middle East with “medievalness” because they’re illiterates, a reminder that smallpox inoculation was first brought to Britain via the Ottomans, thanks to Mary Montagu, an ambassador’s wife.

oh my gosh, it would be so nice to finally meet you!