About Samia’s editorial and professional work:
Samia Garcia-Fakih is an NYC based artist and editor. After earning an MFA in Comics and pursuing her own projects, she found she had a passion and knack for working with creators to bring their stories to life as well. So she settled into an editorial career at First Second Books, a graphic novel publisher within Macmillan. She's worked on a slew of titles including Saving Sunshine, Love Misha, Plain Jane and The Mermaid and Space Chasers. Her goal is to use her experiences as a creator to support every author she works with, and to help others outside the industry to understand the graphic novel medium.
She has a particular interest in Young Adult and Middle Grade fiction and nonfiction, contemporary, romance, drama, dramedy, or magical realism. Emotional themes, mental health, family, economic hardship and fish-out-of-water-stories, are the types of stories that she gravitates to. Some of her favorite books include Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, Bloom, Heartstopper, Check, Please, Scott Pilgrim, Fullmetal Alchemist and Fruits Basket.
“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you, and we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”
Don’t be scared
Riz is determined to prove to his dad that movies matter and ghosts are real, but he and his friends might be in over their head when they investigate the local creepy mansion. Join for the spooky adventure full of family drama, folklore from different cultures, and new-found friendships from acclaimed author Saadia Faruqi and artist Shadia Amin!
Riz Choudhry lives for two things: movies and anything spooky. His dad? Not so much. While Riz dreams of filmmaking and jump scares, his father dreams of Riz going to med school or law school—and neither one includes ghosts.
But the film club is Riz’s safe haven, a place where other supernatural-obsessed first-gen kids swap scary stories from their cultures. So, when the group decides to film a documentary about the creepy old mansion in town, Riz is all in. But there’s a problem. His dad wants Riz to quit the club. AND the building is about to be demolished. Now Riz and his friends must use the power of filmmaking to save the mansion…before it vanishes forever.
Packed with shivers, laughter, and heart, Don’t Be Scared celebrates friendship, heritage, and daring to fight for what matters—even if it means disagreeing with your family.
Everything in Color
Interrogating her own upbringing in an evangelical community, Stephanie Stalvey weaves a story of faith, alienation, romance and acceptance, in this beautifully painted graphic memoir. Perfect for fans of Blankets by Craig Thompson and Fun Home by Alison Bechdel.
Stephanie grew up in an evangelical community where love and obedience were overlapping themes. In this world, sin was inevitable, her body was a temptation, and desire was dangerous. Her own thoughts could not be trusted, because she was only saved if she believed the "right things" about God.
But as she grew, built a life of her own, and fell in love with a young seminarian named James, the complexities of the human experience became impossible to ignore. Was God truly so exacting and judgmental? Could faith exist beyond these rigid borders? Could love be both passionate and pure? Her connection to James—honest, caring and sensual—became a safe place for her worldview to expand. And when their son was born, she understood love in a whole new way… suddenly, everything was sacred, everything was in color.
Through striking prose and beautiful mixed media illustrations, Stalvey takes us on an emotional journey of faith, romance, motherhood and loss. With tenderness and honesty, she unravels the fear and guilt woven into her past, reclaims her sense of self, and shows us how to embrace a love that is healing, transformative, and wholly one's own.
inbetweens
A new tween graphic novel by bestselling author Faith Erin Hicks.
Perfect for fans of Sweetvalley High Twins and Ride On!
Twin sisters Ash and Sloane are headed to animation camp -- where their courage, drive, and sisterly bond will be put to the test!
Twin sisters Sloane and Ash are two peas in a pod, and they do everything together: watch movies, attend classes, and most importantly, draw! So when the summer animation classes of their dreams are about to start, they can barely contain their excitement!
Well…Ash is excited but Sloane is surprised to find she isn’t as jubilant about it, which makes no sense, since she loves art. Meanwhile, Ash discovers that just because you love something, doesn’t mean you’ll automatically be good at it, and she struggles under the weight of her own expectations and those of her teacher’s. Soon, the trials of challen
Love, Misha
In this stunning YA adventure, debut author Askel Aden weaves a story of family schism and reconciliation that effortlessly enriches the complex dynamics of mother and child.
Can this road trip get any worse?
Yes, Mom (Audrey) wanted to spend time with Misha. And yes, she’s never around and they don’t even live together, so this is a rare opportunity. But Audrey still thinks of Misha as her daughter, despite Misha being non-binary and trying to talk to her openly about it. Misha even tries to write how they feel in a letter, but that isn’t going well either.
Then a wrong turn down a forest road leads the mother-child duo straight into the Realm of Spirits! Suddenly in peril and without a clue how to return to their world, Misha and Audrey will have to work together to find their way back home. But can they find a way back to each other?
Saving Sunshine
It's hard enough being a kid without being teased for a funny sounding name or wearing a hijab.
It's even harder when you're constantly fighting your sibling—and Zara and Zeeshan really can't stand each other. During a family trip to Florida, when the bickering, shoving, and insults reach new heights of chaos, their parents sentence them to the worst possible fate— each other’s company! But when the twins find an ailing turtle, it presents a rare opportunity for teamwork—if the two can put their differences aside at last.
From Saadia Faruqi and Shazleen Khan comes a relatable, funny, and heart-wrenchingly honest story of Muslim American siblings learning how to build each other up in a world that is too often unkind.
Titles Samia has worked on with other editors:
