My debut novel, IN THE COUNTRY I LOVE, is coming to Peachtree Teen!
The first YA Iraqi Shia book to hit the shelves โค๏ธ
This book is for the kids who struggle with their faith & those who are desperate to cling on to it. And to the refugees trying to find homeโwherever it may be
Stop normalizing the mass killing of Arabs. It wasn't normal in Iraq nor Syria. It has never been normal for Palestine, but this notion is so normalized in the West that they think what's happening in Gaza is normal. "That's just the Middle East" they shrug. No. It's NOT.
If you all love Dune so much please think about supporting Muslim/SWANA SFF writers and stories instead, writers who are writing about their own cultures/regions/faith and not through an orientalist white lens. Stop reading stories "inspired" by us, just read books BY us.
โจIT'S HAPPENINGโจ
I'm so thrilled to announce that I am being represented by the wonderful
@jenissamichelle
at
@bookendslit
!
I adore Jenissaโs vision for my very Iraqi, very Shia novel about a teen father & his golden boy best friend as they navigate family, faith, & identity!
the amount of times I've heard people say well the Middle East is just destructive..as if our people are inherently meant to die due to imperialism is exactly why we're all witnessing a genocide happen on social media and why our leaders SHRUG it off
everyone swooning over detective hottie in squid game just know that he is also super hot in Romance is A Bonus Book and if you haven't watched that show that is literally about publishing/books/childhood best friends to lovers, you must
As excited as I am for the new hunger games (literally frothing at the mouth) itโs not lost on me that Suzanne Collins wrote it inspired by the US invasion of Iraq & that all her books mirror real pain of real ppl that when real ppl tell those stories you should maybe care too
Raise your hand if youโre a writer of color who grew up exclusively writing white characters because you couldnโt possibly see yourself or people like you in stories?
Raise your hand, if now, all you do, is write about characters who reflect your life/world? ๐ฅบ
If only white book twitter gave even 1/4 energy about Palestine that they did to S&B only weeks ago. Do yall just like fictional stories of oppression? The real thing doesnโt seem to bother you...Palestine liberation is actually reliant on social media + boycott + US policy.
Just a reminder that SWANA people make up less than 1 percent of the publishing industry as a whole, but itโs okay because Timothy Champagne is going to save us in the next Dune adaption.
โจItโs Publisherโs Marketplace official! โจ
I always say when you give an author of color a chance, you allow their entire community to be on the shelf.
I'm excited for you to meet my community. My messy Muslim boys, Yassir and Khaled, Kawther, and a secret POV (more soon!)
do you ever think about what kind of books we could have if BIPOC authors didn't self-censor or be told to censor? do you ever think about what it would be like if we were marketed with the same $ and investment as white authors so we didn't have the need to censor at all? ๐ฅฒ
I see this happen a lot with Muslim authors. There's an expectation that we should represent the whole community and I see that judgment mostly with fellow Muslims. I personally don't write to educate Islamophobes on why Muslims should be humanized. I write for people like me.
Please promise yourself to not look away from Palestine, days, weeks, months from now. As a kid, I used to not understand why my parents always watched the dead and devastation on TV during the US's occupation of Iraq. But now I understand. Looking away is not an option.
Hi
#WritingCommunity
, I'm Alaa! I'm Iraqi-American, I turn 29 this week, and I mentor refugee college students for my day job. My novels center around messy Iraqi characters, Shia faith, with some unexpected sentient narrators๐๐. My debut comes out with
@peachtreeteen
in 2026!
Publishing industry, I really cannot reiterate enough how important it is to center SWANA stories by SWANA voices. We are so tired of the dehumanization due to "it's complicated" narrative. Every SWANA writer I know is working so hard to expose truths about our histories & yet...
โthe Middle East has always been complicatedโ
no it hasnโt. saying this completely disregards the role of western imperialism in shaping our region and in funding most of the political instability that has plagued our part of the world from the dawn of the colonial age.
Saw a super depressing publishing statistic so I will share it here ๐ค
Books ABOUT Arabs made up 0.7% of children's books
Books with a primary Arab character or subject made 0.6% of kid lit
Dune has made 100s of millions of dollars. Tell me you want Arab stories without Arabs
CW: Extreme Violence
It's been 18 years since the US govt destroyed my family's homeland. We are not even close to recognizing the devastation (that was so intentional and calculated). Even though I write about my Iraqi-identity a lot, I don't have a lot of words to say today
Fellow babes who didnโt get into
#pitchwars
: feel those feelings, eat that ice cream, cry those rejection tears, and after? We keep going.
If you feel like youโre barely hanging on a thread with your writing career (like me) know that my DMs are open. Letโs stay encouraged โฅ๏ธ
#pitlight
A woman outwits traditional rules with a fake marriage but sets off a curse instead has:
๐enemies to friends to lovers
๐ง๐ฝโโ๏ธ with very chiseled chin
๐ชthere's only one kitchen pantry during the cursed tornado
๐ช maybe heโs a serial killer, maybe heโs my roommate
Querying is hard on the soul. But I keep thinking about recent feedback I got from an Iraqi-American reader who said she never related to a story more than she had when reading mine. Can't forget who we write for and why that matters more than anything. โฅ๏ธ
For editors!
#questpit
#a
#agented
FATED IDIOTS TO LOVERS
Amirah's fake marriage resets a 10yr curse. To break it she must deal with:
๐ง๐ฝโโ๏ธ & his very chiseled chin
๐ชwho might be a serial killer
โ๏ธ Iraqi fortune-telling aunties
& only one kitchen pantry during the cursed ๐ช๏ธ
Presenting my most chaotic WIP to date for
#pitlight
ARAB NEW GIRL X LOVE IN THE TIME OF SERIAL KILLERS
A fortune teller accidentally predicts her own death. Her killer? One of three hot guys that just moved next door. Now she must uncover her murderer before time runs out.
I understand what happened on good reads was awful and everyone has spoken their piece. But can you all take that tweeting energy and speak for Palestine?? So many of you have been quiet on this app until now. Thereโs a literal genocide happening. Stay focused.
I'm not Palestinian. I'm Iraqi. Iraqis paid the price for 9/11 after the US lied about WMD. The US military + allies killed 1 million Iraqis & the world let it happen. I advocate for Palestine because I can't stand by as history is repeated. In that way, I'm also Palestinian.
Iโm not Palestinian. Iโm Punjabi. But my ancestors survived European invasion of my homeland. They killed 100,000,000 of my people through colonial policies. And so I advocate for Palestine because I canโt stand by as history is repeated. In that way, Iโm also Palestinian. ๐๐พ
No Western journalist has had to go through what these journalists in Gaza are going through. Majority of Western journalists are reporting false information about Palestine which then leads to the killing of these journalists and their entire families.
I just finished writing Draft 1 of this WIP ๐ฅณ it IS a mess and I WILL be revising the hell out of it, but I'm honestly proud that I finished this book in 3.5 months when it took me 4 years just to finish draft 1 of my first novel earlier this year. That's GROWTH ๐ฅณ.
Back to writing my Murder Mystery WIP! In honor of
#pitlight
I wanted to share what this book has in store:
๐ Unhinged Cousins
๐ Falling for your childhood crush despite being engaged to someone else (typical)
๐ง Exploring Grief
๐ Car Ride Sing Alongs
๐ถ Undercover Schemes
Writing books filled with Arab boys who are goofy, angry, hopeful, and loving with Arab girls who are fierce, funny, annoying, and flawed etc. etc. etc. because that's just who we are but somehow in this current wave of anti-Arab sentiment this is basically a radical act.
Editors!
#questpit
#ag
#adult
A skilled fortune teller accidentally predicts her own death.
Her killer?
One of three hot guys that just moved next door. As women in town wind up dead, she must uncover which of the men might be the killer, if she doesn't fall for him first.
Back to writing my Murder Mystery WIP! In honor of
#pitlight
I wanted to share what this book has in store:
๐ Unhinged Cousins
๐ Falling for your childhood crush despite being engaged to someone else (typical)
๐ง Exploring Grief
๐ Car Ride Sing Alongs
๐ถ Undercover Schemes
Maybe irrational, but when you write a book that's incredibly personal to your identity and it gets rejected, it sometimes feels like your identity is being rejected. Will stories with people like me ever make it to the page? I know I'm not the first BIPOC author to feel this.
All writers should be mourning the death of a fellow writer who was targeted & murdered with his family in Gaza by Israel Occupation Forces.
Professor Refaat Al-Areer. Remember his name.
Then, you all need to STOP doing business with Israel. Hold your friends accountable, too.
If an editor would like a book featuring an all Arab cast with
๐ซ chaotic siblings & cousins
๐ซ who are trying to solve a murder
๐ซ while harboring an absurd amount of cash
๐ซ and have only six days to do it
๐ซ during the opioid & housing crisis of 2008
Please let my agent know
So when is publishing actually going to divest from Israel? You canโt talk about โdiverseโ books while making business deals with an apartheid genocidal state (which has been said for years). No more translation deals. No more normalization of business. Authors need to push back
I have so many white books I wrote years ago. Then one day I was like oh, I guess I could make them Iraqi??? BIPOC writers literally have to discover that writing our own identity is okay. It can take YEARS to realize. A professor had to tell me it was okay ๐ฅฒ
thinking about how i'll never be able to publish my old work because they all feature white people since i didn't know you could just. not write white people LMFAO
AND THAT CONCLUDES THE FIRST EVER
#SWANApit
I am SERIOUSLY blown away by all the incredible pitches today! Thank you for trusting us! Thank you for supporting SWANA writers! Agents and editors THANK you for giving SWANA voices the attention they deserve!
And that's a wrap!
THANK YOU ALL FOR PARTICIPATING IN THE FIRST EVER
#SWANApit
!
We were BLOWN AWAY by all the incredible pitches & support!
Massive thank you to our SWANA community for trusting us! Thank you to the agents and editors for showing up and supporting this event!
Jumping on this!
Hi! Iโm Alaa and I write contemporary YA! I also dabble in Adult literary! My brand is writing messy Iraqi-American Shia Muslim characters. Iโm currently querying a novel about an Iraqi teen dad. My current WIP is a murder mystery with unhinged cousins ๐๐
Hi! I'm Abbey and I write YA/A fantasy! My brand is messy, magical ace girls reckoning with monsters real and imagined, embracing darkness, and finding light. My current wip features a Lebanese-American girl facing the jinn and her OCD to save her sisters โจ
Oh and that white people get to write allegories about real life BIPOC pain but are exempt from speaking about it in real life while BIPOC are still censored. i find that exploitative. With that said I will still be sobbing as I read Haymitchโs book.
White people stop using Muslims and Sharia to describe your own people's extremist ideologies challenge. we are not the marker of your backwards behavior. It's Islamophobic, babe.
The existence of Pitch Wars also implies the existence of Pitch Peace where the mentors put down their bloodied swords and hold hands and make a manifesting circle for everyone as they summon agents.
I just submitted and that's exactly what I imagine happening right now.
Today is the 10th day of Muharrum which is also known as Ashura. I want to talk about the significance of this day from the perspective of a Shia Iraqi Muslim (living in the US) and how this practice was woven into my diaspora community. Very long thread ahead!
This month I queried my novel, helped run a critique match, dealt w/ work BS, hosted the first SWANApit, wrote 90 pgs of my WIP, started grad school, and am now leaving for two weeks for my first international trip in four years. Lots of blessings & stress but aH for everything
I sometimes feel in the fiction world that books marketed as โMuslimโ usually default Sunni Muslims and their practices and that Shia Muslim books (& other sects) are almost never included in that category because they are not being published or acknowledged in mainstream
okay, most of you write really beautiful words. Do you just naturally have them stored in your beautiful head or do you use a word bank or thesaurus? I need to step up some of the descriptions in my writing & am wondering what's your fave website to spice it up?
My bb pitch contest is tomorrow!! ๐ฅน Tomorrow, I will 100% be an emotional stage mom. Just a friendly reminder that we are using the hashtag
#SWANApit
tomorrow. I sincerely apologize for any confusion! But let's spread the word!!
โจ
#SWANApit
is tomorrow โจ
We want you to know that we will be using the hashtag
#SWANApit
. Here are a few more tips to get you through tomorrow's pitching event!
wild how some of you write and publish books for children but have stayed silent about the 10k Palestinian children who have been murdered by Israel in the past 3 months
FATED IDIOTS TO LOVERS
When Amirah agrees to the latest marriage proposal her parents have presented, they have no idea she just pulled off the perfect scheme. Except outwiting traditional rules may have set off a 10 yr curse instead & its after her
#questpit
#agented
#adult
My first short story "A Disappearance" explores a subject that runs deep in my Iraqi diaspora community.
I'm honored to share a cover and book alongside such incredibly beautiful, raw stories. Support BIPOC women and order your copy hereโค๏ธ
Okayyy I have started a slack channel! If you would like to join a Muslim Writing Group where we can be chaotic, share our work, ask questions, and genuinely support each other please DM me or respond below and I will add you in ๐ฅฐ Open to ALL Muslims writing PB-YA
โจjust wondering ๐ฅบโจ
are there any kid lit Muslim writer groups out there where we get to connect with other Muslim writers and be chaotic and ask questions?
One obviously open to all sects.
If there is, can I join ๐ฅบ if not, who wants to start a lil group ๐๐ผ๐๐ผ๐ฅฒ
As we see another wave of Arab dehumanization in mass media, is publishing going to, I don't know, actually try to publish Arab authors and their stories now or do we still need to fight at 1% to barely be seen or heard?
Sometimes I forget how far Iโve come as a writer and realize I spent the first 5 years learning to write exactly how a YA white writer would and how white readers wouldโve liked it (2010-2015) and then spent five years trying to figure how to write FOR me.Thatโs growth ๐ฑ
I've been querying on + off since June of 2021. I'm sharing a slice of my writing + querying journey on the Bookends Blog today! ๐ฅฐโจBIPOC writers struggling with writing their authentic voice + querying writers working on R&Rs, this one is for you!
I truly think people are minimizing how this dehumanization will only spread and expand. How Israel will not just stop at taking Palestine. The whole region is at threat. & that if your friends/community cannot stand up for Palestine they sure as hell will leave you in the dust
My sister in law's friend is trying to evacuate Gaza with her family. If you can please donate and/or share, would be much appreciated! Anything helps!!
๐ Looking for Beta Readers๐
Looking for readers for my Snow White Retelling for the
#BIPOCfairytale
anthology short story submission
My story has:
๐ช Magic
๐ฎ Fortune-telling
๐ง๐ฝ 7 Aunties instead of 7 Dwarfs
โค๏ธ A Prince Who May or May not Show Up
๐ด Ancient-Arabia Vibes
this is not much of a hot take at all, and it's not just because I'm a contemporary writer, but a reader, too, and I just think more contemporary books should get those cute sprayed edges & be featured in more book boxes ๐ฅน I don't think it should be exclusive to mostly fantasy
โจ๐งฟAnnouncing
#SWANApit
๐งฟโจ
There's a shiny new pitch contest for South West Asian and North African writers! Help us spread the word and join us on May 16 8am-8pm EST for
#SWANApit
. For official rules please visit us or check out our attached guide.
*clears throat nervously*
โจ LOOKING FOR BETA READERSโจ
I am revising this book once again and will need at least 3 beta readers who can give feedback on pacing, plot, and structure.
Itโs not ready just yet but if you would like to read this in a few weeks let me know ๐ฅบ
RAMY X THUG X
After an Islamophobic hate crime, a teen father with shaky faith & the masjidโs golden boy are forced to face their estranged families if theyโre to figure out the truth of the attack & the secret that tore their families apart years ago.
#DVPit
#YA
#Con
Oh hi, Iโm so excited to have my first ever short story published by
@TheNasiona
!!
We are looking for a voice actor who speaks Arabic/can pronounce Arabic words for the audiobook of the anthology! Do you know anyone who fits? Bonus points if theyโre Iraqi!!
Please RT+ SHARE
Looking for a voice actor to record an essay for a women of color audiobook anthology in US English and can speak Arabic (there are Arabic words in the essay). Ideally, an Iraqi American voice actor. If you are interested or know of anyone, please DM. This is a paid gig.
Pls RT.
Got the kindest message ๐ฅน. This is what I mean when I say that giving an author of color a chance, it allows their entire community to be on shelf. I want publishers to understand that when you champion one of us, that youโre giving the rest of us courage to tell our stories
the us would rather wipe out the entire middle eastern region than tell its client state to stop its genocidal onslaught against palestinians and i just donโt think enough of us are truly grasping the level of unconscionable depravity the non-western world is up against
โจCALLING ALL UNAGENTED SWANA AUTHORSโจ
Itโs finally time to apply to the Quillers 2024-2025 Mentorship Program!
Applications close August 15, so donโt wait to get your applications in! You can find the application here:
Happy applying!
After spending a lifetime watching my people be dehumanized, I wanted to reclaim the narrative and put Iraqis in all kinds of genres, not for the sake of representation but because we deserve to be seen as human too.
Literary. Rom Com. Murder Mysteries. Fantasy. You name it ๐
How many more babies need to be pulled from the rubble? How many kids do we have to watch screaming and crying for their dead mothers while they suffer from life-threatening injuries alone? How many mothers do we have to see hold their dead children as they scream their goodbyes?
This is what every military system is at the end of the day. Soldiers come home and kiss their families after slaughtering the brown ones. These people are committing genocide just miles away from where their own children live. Fuck the military & fuck Israel.
Israeli reservists coming home for a brief visit and seeing their kids for the first time in weeks is my new favorite internet content. โค๏ธ
We know what weโre fighting for.
We know why Hamas must be destroyed.
Itโs only be 1.5 hours and I said I would wait until 1/2 the day is through before getting emotional but itโs too late ๐ญ my heart is so full seeing all these SWANA pitches by SWANA creators! I canโt even keep up ๐ฅนโค๏ธ
Lately, when my 3 year old nephew is upset, he says โIโm cryingโ in arabic, without absolutely no tears, and honestly Iโve never related to something so hard in my life.
Authors who merely put up a Gaza donation link or donated for Books For Palestine and have kept completely silent about Palestine on their platforms since then are not being the ally they should be. That was bare absolute minimum and going back regular programming is pathetic.
It feels really hard to celebrate & be joyful this Eid while our fellow Muslims in Palestine and Sudan are being terrorized and murdered ๐ thinking about all the kids having their first eids without their parents, the parents whoโve lost kids who shouldโve been here๐
Today marked the first day of Muharrum, and Iโm thinking about my Shia Muslim boys in my Muharrum book ๐
While Muharram marks the start of the Islamic calendar, it is also the time of the year where Shias are the most misunderstood, stereotyped, targeted, and hated against.
โจExciting News!โจ
You can now add IN THE COUNTRY I LOVE on Goodreads! While I try to get verified, please enjoy these graphics I created to get to know the story a bit better! Shout out to
@nessywrites
for the beautiful aesthetic board! ๐
as someone who constantly thinks my stories and writing isn't enough...thank you to everyone who left their sweet support during DVpit. Your kindness & enthusiasm is sincerely the boost I needed ๐ฅนIt gives me hope for this little Iraqi Shia book about friendship might make it ๐ซถ๐ฝ
I don't think that anti-imperialist stories should be exclusive to fantasy stories in kid lit. I don't think we always need big magic systems as metaphors for violence. I think we also need more anti-imperialist stories as contemporary because they are our current realities.
Just querying writing...but also, why isn't there a database of reputable authors query letters?! I wanna know what they wrote before the jacket copies. How rough or perfect was it really. Did they also cry? ๐ฅฒ
Hit 50k with my Murder Mystery WIP ๐ฅณ I'm confused because it took me like 3 years to get that far with my last book and this took me less than 3 months to get this far????