Beenish Ahmed is a reporter and writer.
Awarded a Kresge Artist Fellowship for her fiction writing, she is working on an interconnected short story collection called ISLAMERICA. The stories feature a diverse group of young Muslims as they navigate personal crises during pivotal moments in the post-9/11 era under the guidance of a Sufi spiritual leader.
Beenish won the $10,000 first prize in the James Jones first novel contest in 2022 for her novel-in-progress, EVERY SONG AN ELEGY, which explores a mysterious mass murder in a remote village in Pakistan.
Beenish is the creator of THE ALIGNIST, a box subscription venture that connects international literature to international news through unique companion readers. She curates a collection of fair trade artisanal goods and authentic local recipes for each box to create an immersive and engaged literary experience.
A reporter at the NPR news station Michigan Public, her work has appeared on NPR, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, VICE, and other outlets.
Beenish has been a Spencer Fellow at the Columbia School of Journalism, an NPR Kroc Fellow, and a Fulbright Scholar to the United Kingdom through which she earned an MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies from the University of Cambridge.