Nussaibah Younis

Nussaibah Younis
BornAugust 1986 (age 39)
Manchester, England
Alma mater
Years active2012–present

Nussaibah Younis (born August 1986) is an English writer, academic and former consultant and humanitarian worker known for her expertise on contemporary Iraq. Her debut novel Fundamentally (2025) won a Comedy Women in Print Prize among other accolades.[1]

Early life

Younis was born in Manchester to an Iraqi father and a Pakistani mother and grew up in a Muslim household in Manchester and Leeds. The 2003 invasion of Iraq had a "huge impact" on her family.[2] She attributes her career and journey to her desire to help and learn more about her father's country.[3][4] Younis attended Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, completing her A Levels in 2004.[5] She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Modern History and English from Merton College, Oxford. During her time at Oxford, she became features editor of Cherwell.[6] She went on to complete a Master of Arts (MA) and a PhD in International Affairs at Durham University.[7][8][9]

Career

After completing her Durham PhD, Younis undertook a post-doctoral fellowship at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.[10] She then worked at the Atlantic Council as director of the Future of Iraq Task Force. As of 2018, she was a Senior Fellow and Advisor to the European Institute of Peace. She was also an Associate Fellow of Chatham House and a Visiting Fellow of the European Council on Foreign Relations.[11][12]

From 2019 to 2020, through a non-profit organisation, Younis was an adviser to the Iraqi government on and designer of deradicalisation programmes for women allegedly involved with the Islamic State.[3] It was here Younis became inspired to write her debut novel; she empathised with the teenage girls and saw her younger self in them. In an eight-way auction in February 2024, Weidenfeld & Nicolson won the rights to publish Younis' debut novel Fundamentally in a two-book deal. The U.S. publishing rights simultaneously went to Tiny Reparations.[13] Younis had turned down a non-fiction deal, as she felt a non-fiction book on the subject would only appeal to her colleagues and she wanted her work to be enjoyable to a wider audience.[14] She sought to balance comedic elements with serious topics and to satirise international aid in the line of Evelyn Waugh's Scoop (1938) and the BBC Two sitcom W1A,[7] taking a comedy class to hone her skills.[2] Published in February 2025 and set in 2017, the novel follows academic Nadia Amin as she takes a job rehabilitating ISIS women amid turmoil in her personal life and meets Sara, a Londoner who ran away at age 15.[15][16]

Fundamentally won the 'Published Novel' and 'Reader's Choice' categories of the 2025 Comedy Women in Print Prize.[17] It was shortlisted for the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction, the 2025 Books Are My Bag Readers' Awards[18] and the 2025 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize.[19] Younis is in the process of adapting Fundamentally for television and writing her second novel.[2]

Personal life

Younis lives in Highbury, North London.[5] She is no longer religious.[2]

Bibliography

  • Fundamentally (2025)

References

  1. ^ Wood, Heloise (2025-11-03). "Sara Pascoe wins inaugural Jilly Cooper Award at the Comedy Women in Print Prize 2025". The Bookseller. Retrieved 2025-11-05.
  2. ^ a b c d Kelly, Roisin (23 February 2025). "'I could have been an Isis bride': Nussaibah Younis on making fun of extremism". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 10 May 2025.
  3. ^ a b "In conversation with Nussaibah Younis". Women's Prize. 21 March 2025. Retrieved 5 April 2025.
  4. ^ Carter, Austin (5 March 2025). "Indies Introduce Q&A with Nussaibah Younis". American Booksellers Association. Retrieved 10 May 2025.
  5. ^ a b Leonard, Sue (1 May 2025). "Beginner's pluck: Full-time writer Nussaibah Younis". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 10 May 2025.
  6. ^ "Dr Nussaibah Younis (2004)". Merton College, Oxford. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  7. ^ a b "Spotlight on Alumni: Dr Nussaibah Younis". University of Oxford Faculty of English. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  8. ^ "Nussaibah Younis". A.M. Heath Literary Agents. Retrieved 10 May 2025.
  9. ^ "Class Notes - October 2025". Durham University. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  10. ^ "Nussaibah Younis". Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  11. ^ "Nussaibah Younis". European Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 10 May 2025.
  12. ^ "Factions in Conversation: The Internal Track-II Dialogue in Iraq". Brandeis University. 31 October 2018. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  13. ^ Bayley, Sian (20 February 2024). "Weidenfeld & Nicolson wins 'fierce' eight-way auction for Nussaibah Younis' dark comedy Fundamentally". The Bookseller. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  14. ^ Brown, Lauren (8 November 2024). "Debuts of 2025, Volume 1: Nussaibah Younis". The Bookseller. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  15. ^ Goyal, Sana (21 February 2025). "Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis review – witty debut about Islamic State brides". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 May 2025.
  16. ^ Alkahly-Mills, Sarah (18 March 2025). "Pawn or Perpetrator: Nussaibah Younis's Fundamentally". The Rumpus. Retrieved 10 May 2025.
  17. ^ "The 2025 Prize". Comedy Women in Print Prize. Retrieved 2025-11-05.
  18. ^ "Books Are My Bag Readers Awards". Retrieved 2025-10-12.
  19. ^ Salam, Sabah (2025-10-28). "Richard Ayoade among authors in running to have pig named after book". The Guardian. Retrieved 2025-10-28.
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