
Shahnaz Habib Wins 7th Annual New American Voices Award
Photo: fallforthebook.org
India-West Staff Reporter
FAIRFAX, VA – Shahnaz Habib has been awarded the prestigious 7th Annual New American Voices Award, a $5,000 prize recognizing immigrant voices in literature, for her book Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel.
This post-publication award, presented for Immigration Research, spotlights works that capture the nuanced and often overlooked facets of the immigrant experience. Habib’s book, an eclectic and insightful exploration of travel, reframes the concept from an immigrant’s perspective, challenging conventional narratives about movement and identity.

Airplane Mode subverts the notion that travel is a luxury of the privileged, especially those from the Global North. Instead, Habib humorously confronts the stereotype that individuals from the Global South “immigrate” rather than “travel,” weaving a narrative that reflects her own experiences across continents. She uses her essays to explore unexpected topics like the history of passports, forests, and the quirks of airport carousels, and even dips into the surprising connections between cultures. Through her witty prose and perceptive storytelling, Habib breaks molds, presenting travel as a series of insights and challenges familiar to many but rarely voiced.
Judges Myriam J. A. Chancy, V. V. Ganeshananthan, and Karin Tanabe praised Habib’s work for its boldness, describing her as an author who “breaks molds” and delivers an extraordinary voice that “challenges presuppositions” about immigrant lives and identities. Ganeshananthan, noting the exceptional courage in the entries, remarked that books like Habib’s “take great risks” in ways that redefine how immigrant stories can be told.
Habib grew up in Kerala and is currently based in New York. She holds a BA from Mahatma Gandhi University, an MA in English Literature from the University of Delhi, and an MA in Media Studies from the New School.