Graduate student Hebah Uddin published a YA novel

Hebah Uddin, a doctoral student in Pitt’s Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and the author behind the name Karuna Riazi, had her most recent novel published with a HarperCollins imprint.

“A Bit of Earth” is a novel of prose and verse for young adults that reimagines a classic, “The Secret Garden.” It is her third middle-grades book, and her first published with Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. Uddin also adapted “The Jungle Book” for the Apple TV series “Ghostwriter.”

Authors have called Uddin’s novel “quietly magical and powerfully real,” “a deft reimagining” and “a rare gift.” It is on sale now.