Published on 06:20 PM, August 22, 2022

After Ponir Hossain, now illustrator Fahmida Azim claims the Pulitzer for Bangladesh

Photo: Collected

Illustrator and author, Fahmida Azim, won the Pulitzer Prize for using graphic reportage and medium like comics to pen down a powerful and intimate story of Uyghurs and their struggles against China's systematic oppression, bringing a complex issue accessible to a wider public.

Illustrator and author Fahmida Azim. Photo taken from The Pulitzer Prizes website.

The Pulitzer Prize is considered to be the most prestigious awards in journalism and publishing.

Mohammad Ponir Hossain won it for feature photography in 2018, as Reuters staff.  

The painter and decorator of Bangladeshi origin received the award for her work on a report titled 'How I Escaped a Chinese Internment Camp.' The illustration was published by the Insider website.

Fahmida Azim is the first Bangladeshi-descent person to receive the Pulitzer Prize. She also won the 'Golden Kite' award for the book illustration of 'Samira Surf' earlier this year.

Azim's work focuses on themes of identity, culture, and autonomy, capturing real people with extraordinary lives, fictional people living beautifully ordinary lives, and food. As of now, she is focusing on her debut solo graphic novel, Mega Megha, for Scholastics Graphix. She currently resides in Seattle, Washington. She has worked on numerous book illustrations as well