Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: Agent, Atheneum, graphic novel, nidhi chanani, Unfinished
Unfinished by Nidhi Chanani is a new YA graphic novel interweaving a contemporary story of family grief, from Anatheum in 2026.
Article Summary
- New YA graphic novel Unfinished by Nidhi Chanani coming in autumn 2026 from Atheneum.
- Sanjay Lal’s tale intertwines family grief with a historical comic project.
- World English rights sold at auction, orchestrated by agent Jodi Reamer.
- Chanani’s previous works include Pashmina, now being adapted into a Netflix musical.
Unfinished by Nidhi Chanani is a new YA graphic novel interweaving a contemporary story of family grief with a historical story in a way that highlights the process of comic book making. In group counselling, 15-year-old Sanjay Lal sets out to finish a historical comic his older brother began before his death about a group of Indian freedom fighters in 1913 San Francisco, in the process uncovering astonishing truths about his brother, his community, and the power in remembering.
World English rights to Unfinished were sold at auction to Kristie Choi at Atheneum, for publication in the autumn of 2026, and Nidhi Chanani’s agent Jodi Reamer at Writers House negotiated the sale and auction. Nidhi Chanini says “UNFINISHED is my most ambitious book yet. When I began writing in late 2022 I didn’t know where it would take me – how @jodiesque would push me to a story that envelopes loss, Indian American history and comics. When @minjipatterson acquired it, we pushed even more. It’s like no other comic I’ve made and I cannot wait to finish (pun intended) and share it with you.”
Nidhi Chanani is an Indian-American freelance illustrator and artist, whose debut graphic novel Pashmina was released by First Second Books in 2017. She received a degree in Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz and attended the Academy of Art University in San Francisco for a year and a half before dropping out, feeling “limited by the way art is taught.” She is now an instructor at the California College of the Arts and runs an online webseries and store EveryDayLoveArt.com, where she tries to capture the relevance for “ordinary everyday moments in our daily lives”. She was honored at the White House as a Champion of Change
She also worked as a concept artist for the 2011 Australian film, Hannah and the Hasbian, drew the Aladdin-spinoff graphic novel from Dark Horse Comics, Disney’s Princess: Jasmine’s New Pet and her graphic novel, Jukebox, was a collaboration with her husband Nick Giordano about two Muslim American cousins, Shaheen and Tannaz in San Francisco who find a magical jukebox that comes to their aid when Giovanni, Shaheen’s father, goes missing. Netflix announced it will adapt Chanani’s graphic novel Pashmina into a CG animated musical with Gurinder Chadha set to direct.
Her next graphic novel, Super Boba Cafe will be published by Abrams in October this year.
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