In The Rumi Prescription: How an Ancient Mystic Poet Changed My Modern Manic Life, author and activist Melody Moezzi writes about how studying Rumi's poetry with her father helped her forge a path towards love, gratitude and self-acceptance.

My third YA novel, Mariam Sharma Hits the Road, is out from HarperCollins on June 5, 2018. I love this cover, the colors, the texture. Everything on the cover has something to do with the road trip, and it makes me so happy that there are three POC (Mariam, Ghazala and Umar, the three main characters) on it. It also has to be the first YA book cover featuring a Muslim prayer rug and a lota! I had a blast writing this and can't wait for it to be shared with the world.

As a young adult writer, I'm often asked for YA book recommendations. Here are some of my favorite books I’ve read in the recent past.

Sara Farizan’s 2014 YA debut is about a lesbian teenager living in Tehran who’s been in love with her best friend since they were six. That alone should be enough to make you want to read it, and when you do, you’ll find yourself falling hard for the narrator Sahar, a sharp, intelligent girl willing to sacrifice anything for the possibility of being with her beloved, even herself.