College of Arts and Humanities

Samina Najmi

Professor

English | For advising appointments: https://calendly.com/snajmi-2/office-hours | Office: PB 436

Education

PhD in English, Tufts University, Medford, MA
M.A. in English, Tufts University, Medford, MA
B.A. (Honors) in English Literature, Karachi University, Karachi, Pakistan

Courses Taught

Dr. Najmi teaches courses in contemporary multiethnic U.S. literatures, Asian American literature, American Indian literature, core courses in the major, GE courses, and graduate seminars on such topics as “Multiethnic Literature of the San Joaquin Valley,” "Multiethnic Memoirs," and "Wars Stories."

Dr. Samina Najmi is a scholar and creative nonfiction writer who has been teaching U.S. literature at Fresno State since 2006. As of 2023, she also serves as advisor for the Literature and Creative Writing options in the English major. She cofounded the English Department’s annual Undergraduate Conference on Multiethnic Literatures of the Americas (UCMLA) in 2009, the Williams-Inada Contest for Edison High School in 2018, the Cheng Lok Chua Scholarship in 2020, as well as two new Young Writers Conference awards honoring Fresno women writers of national stature: Wendy Rose (Hopi, Miwok) and Sherley Anne Williams of southwest Fresno. Dr. Najmi serves on the President's APIDA Advisory Council and the President's Muslim Advisory Council. She believes in everyone’s three feet of influence, and in the power of language and literature to extend our reach. Visit her author website at https://saminanajmi.com

(Photo by Azfar Najmi)

Multiethnic U.S. literatures, Asian American literature, contemporary war narratives and poetics; memoir, personal essay, and creative nonfiction

Scholarship and Creative Nonfiction

Scholarly Publications:

Critical Perspectives on Chitra Divakaruni: Feminism and Diaspora. Coeditor, with Amritjit Singh and Robin Field. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books (imprint of Rowman & Littlefield), 2022.
“Narrating War: Arab and Muslim American Aesthetics.” Cambridge History of Asian American Literature. Ed. Rajini Srikanth and Min Song. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge UP, Dec. 2015. Print.
“Whiteness and the Soldier-Speaker in Brian Turner’s Here, Bullet.” Rocky Mountain Review 65.1 (Spring 2011): 56-78. Print.
“Naomi Shihab Nye’s Aesthetic of Smallness and the Military Sublime.” Multiethnic Poetics. Ed. Meta D. Jones and Keith Leonard. Spec. issue of MELUS 35.2 (2010): 151-71. Print.
Form and Confrontation in Asian American Literature. Coeditor, with Zhou Xiaojing. Seattle: U of Washington P, 2005. Print. Collection of critical essays on Asian American appropriations and transformations of mainstream literary genres and discursive strategies.
White Women in Racialized Spaces: Imaginative Transformation and Ethical Action in Literature. Coeditor, with Rajini Srikanth. Albany: SUNY P, 2002. Print. Critical essays on historical and literary representations of white women’s interactions with people of color globally, and the political and ethical ramifications of their relations.
The Heart of Hyacinth. By Onoto Watanna. Editor and Introduction. Seattle: U of Washington P, 2000. Print. Reissue of a 1903 novel by Asian America’s first novelist.
“Decolonizing the Bildungsroman: Narratives of War and Womanhood in Nora Okja Keller’s Comfort Woman.” Form and Confrontation in Asian American Literature. Ed. Zhou Xiaoing and Samina Najmi. Seattle: U of Washington P, 2005. Print.
“White Woman in Asia: Racial Fluidity as Rebellion in Onoto Watanna’s The Heart of Hyacinth.” Literary Studies East and West: Re-placing America. Ed. Ruth Hsu, et al. Honolulu: U of Hawaii P and East-West Center, 2000. 82-91. Print.
“Janet, Polly, and Olivia: Constructs of Blackness and White Femininity in Charles Chesnutt’s The Marrow of Tradition.” Southern Literary Journal xxxii: 1 (Fall 1999): 1-19. Print.
“Asian Men and White Women in the Works of Carlos Bulosan and Sui Sin Far.” International Perspectives on English Studies, American Studies, and Cultural Studies in Asia in the ‘Pacific Era.’” Ed. Amporn Srisermbhok. Bangkok: Srinakharinwirot UP, 1998. Print.

Select Creative Nonfiction:

Sing Me a Circle: Love, Loss, and a Home in Time. Winner of the 2024 Aurora Polaris Award in creative nonfiction. Forthcoming from Trio House Press, Oct 1, 2025.
“Here—and There—Lies Home.” In Writing the Golden State: The New Literary Terrain of California. Ed. Romeo Guzman et al. Angel City Press, 2024.
“Sweet-and-Twenty.” Under the Gum Tree, Issue 49, Fall 2023.
“Memoir In Dust” and "Threshold." In New Moons: Contemporary Muslim American Literature. Ed. Kazim Ali. Red Hen Press, 2021.
“Trinitá.” Under the Sun, 29 May 2021. Nominated for Pushcart Prize.
“The Cat Connection.” In The Ordinary Chaos of Being Human: Tales from Many Muslim Worlds. Ed. Marguerite Richards. Penguin Southeast Asia, 2019. US edition: 2024.
“Triptych.” World Literature Today. Mar. 2017. https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2017/march/triptych-samina-najmi
“Ring In the New.” Warscapes 12 Nov. 2014.
“The Little Room on the Roof.” Gargoyle 61 (2014). Print.
“Greenford’s Gift.” The Rumpus 5 Aug. 2013.
“Skydying.” Chautauqua Journal (2013): 167-9. Print.
“Hiding Osama bin Laden.” The Progressive Oct. 2012: 32-3. Print. Reprint in Our Stories: An Introduction to South Asian America. South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA), 2021.
“She Leaves Me, She Leaves Me Not.” bioStories 7 Aug. 2012. Reissued in Mothers and Other Creatures. Ed. Mark Leichliter. Create Space, Feb. 2015. Print.
“Burglar in Braids.” Pilgrimage. 36: 2/3 (May 2012): 10-13. Print.
“Abdul.” Map Literary: A Journal of Contemporary Literature 1, Spring 2012. Winner, 2012 Map Literary Nonfiction Prize. Reprinted in Glint 15, Winter 2024.
“Membership Dues.” SALA (South Asian Literary Association, an allied organization of the MLA). Winter 2011: Newsletter, Personal Essay, 26. Print.
“Teaching as a Pakistani American Muslim Feminist.” Commemorating the Tenth Anniversary of September 11. Ed. Parag Khandar and Rajini Srikanth. Spec. issue of Asian American Literary Review. 2: 1.5 (Fall 2011): 17-24. Print.