Author

Anti-Racist Storyteller

DEIA Strategist

Sofia Ali-Khan is the author of A Good Country: My Life in Twelve Towns and the Devastating Battle for a White America (Random House, 2022), winner of the 2023 Nautilus Gold Book Award.  

A Good Country is a braided narrative, both memoir and the history of how American segregation is maintained through the forced migration and dispossession of Black and Brown people. Complete endnotes for A Good Country can be found here.

Award-Winning Author

Sofia Ali-Khan
“In this captivating portrait of America, Sofia Ali-Khan makes the case that a ‘good country,’ as her immigrant parents would call their new home, should be strong enough to confront its past.

At a time when many would rather ban or bury the truth, Ali-Khan bravely faces it in this bracing and necessary book.”

— Ayad Akhtar, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Homeland Elegies

Anti-Racist Storyteller

Sofia crafts custom stories about America's color lines for nonprofit organizations, corporations, and community audiences to understand how the history of America's color lines shapes our work, our homes, and our lives. Her stories ground your efforts to create a better society.

DEIA Strategist   

Sofia's stories counter the backlash against DEIA efforts. The  institutionalization of anti-racist efforts is necessary to creating    widespread understanding in an increasingly diverse society. To understand where we're going, we need to know how we got here.

Sofia Ali-Khan brings a grounded, compassionate wisdom that has been shaped by decades of grass-roots activism, policy advocacy and institutional transformation.  

As a trained, experienced social justice lawyer, I've worked in some of America's poorest neighborhoods, run a church basement legal clinic for undocumented immigrants, and helped very low-income women of color get the zoning and licensing to start businesses in their homes. I've worked as an advocate in a domestic violence shelter, a hate crimes researcher, and a community organizer.  After 9/11, I was a co-founder and Vice President of the Council of American Islamic Relations in Philadelphia (CAIR-Philly), doing education and outreach throughout the Delaware Valley in the midst of cresting Islamophobia.  

My legal training and experience, combined with a passion for storytelling and authentic connection, brings a unique perspective to the important work of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access.

Writing at the intersection of politics, race, history, and Muslim America,  my essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, TIME Magazine, the Chicago Tribune, and other publications, earning a Pushcart Prize nomination in 2022.

Articles and Essays

Storytelling and Interviews

Sofia Ali-Khan rediscovers her faith after her life falls apart.

Sofia Ali-Khan shares stories of “slippery” liberty and how they compelled her to move to Canada.