Asia Alfasi is an award winning British Libyan graphic novelist. Born in Libya in 1984, she spent her formative years first in Tripoli, and then in Glasgow, Scotland upon migrating there with her family. The definitive Libyan childhood, at the time, was replete with Arabic-dubbed Japanese anime based on classic novels such as Little Women, Anne of Green Gables and Les Miserables, all of which inspired and nurtured her love of the genre.
Following the events of 9/11, and upon discovery of serious acclaimed graphic novels such as Art Spiegleman’s “Maus”, Joe Sacco’s “Palestine” and Marjane Satrapi’s “Persepolis”, she realised their immense potential at humanising issues and bringing forth the plight of often marginalised peoples to the fore and therefore furthering understanding.. As a result, she vowed to take part in that through representing the muslim Arab voice through her work and contributing to that literary and artistic discourse.
Asia has won several national and international manga awards with short stories, earning her a position in London’s acclaimed 2014 “Comics Unmasked” exhibition under the banner of ‘names to look out for’.
Having spent a couple of years in Libya during and after the recent revolution, she is currently re- working a semi-autobiographical graphic novel based on her childhood in Libya, as well as a series based on an Islamic Folk Tale Character “Juha: The Tales of Sheikh Nasruddin” and “Native Narratives: Libyan folk tales” with the ultimate aim of harnessing the medium as a tool for cross- cultural dialogue.
