Author

Sophia Qureshi

Sophia is the founder of 285 South, Metro Atlanta’s only English language news publication dedicated to the region’s immigrant and refugee communities. Before launching 285 South in 2021, she worked for over 15 years in media and communications, including at Al Jazeera Media Network, CNN, the United Nations Development Programme, and South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT).

Her writing has been published in Atlanta Magazine, Canopy Atlanta, the Atlanta Civic Circle, the Atlanta History Center, and The Local Palate. She won the Atlanta Press Club award for Narrative Nonfiction in 2023 and 2024; and was a recipient of the Raksha Community Change award in 2023 and was a fellow of Ohio University’s Kiplinger Public Affairs Journalism Program in 2024.

Contact her at sophia@285south.com and learn more about her here.

Sophia's Latest Articles

Don’t miss these immigrant vendors at your next visit to the farmers market

A roundup of some of the diverse vendors selling items at local community farmers markets.

Specific ways people are supporting immigrant and refugee communities right now.

We’ve been gathering information about what concerned folks can do to support immigrant and refugee communities.

What’s the inspiration behind Atlanta United’s insanely cool new scarf?

Laos, sank yat tattoos, and, a mom.

Arrests are up, deportations are (maybe) down: An expert helps us parse the government’s confusing immigration numbers.

The Trump administration is "making wild claims and not providing any evidence," says Austin Kocher, a Syracuse University researcher who's spent the past decade studying immigration.

The Atlanta pastry pop-up that’s raising funds for Palestine

Vinny Pellegri talks to 285 South about the inspiration behind his mutual aid bakery and “Cannolis for Gaza”

“It’s a lot of unknowns and things that we know could change – just like that.”

Despite funding uncertainties, this Vietnamese nonprofit in Norcross is continuing its work to serve immigrant communities.

“We deserve to have our romance shown on the page”

Aisha Saeed makes her adult-fiction debut with The Matchmaker, a romantic mystery about the South Asian wedding scene—set in metro Atlanta

ICE detained a 58-year-old Georgia resident with claims to U.S. citizenship on Wednesday

Alma Bowman moved to the U.S. from the Philippines when she was 10. She should have obtained U.S. citizenship from her father, says her lawyer. On March 26, she was taken to the Stewart Detention Center.

“We have to preserve our culture, our language, our religion, and we have to make some special efforts”

Georgia State House approves resolution recognizing the Punjabi language

“If we’re not operational, there isn’t really anywhere else that they could go”

Free mental health provider for refugees and asylum seekers stops taking new clients in Atlanta, after its overseas work was decimated by a termination of USAID contracts