Salaam, friends! It feels really weird to be writing this wrap-up post almost a month after #RamadanReadathon ended, but better late than never?
It’s needless to say that I’ve always felt overwhelmed by the support for this readathon over the last four years, from readers and authors alike. Which is why I really struggled to accept that I was feeling major burn out this year around halfway through the month.
#RamadanReadathon has always been a passion project of mine but, this year, it almost felt like work. But I want to focus on the positives here, because that’s what ultimately keeps me going.
Not only did I manage to spotlight almost every author in the Once Upon An Eid anthology, but I also hosted an Instagram Live with S. K. Ali as well as photo challenges and a Twitter chat. Not to mention a collaboration with the co-hosts of #SARC2020 and guest posts from other Muslim bloggers. The only thing I didn’t do is read any books, but I’m blaming that on my year-long reading slump!
So, without further ado, here’s your ultimate round-up for everything #RamadanReadathon 2020. Spoiler alert: it’s a good one!Read More »
Hena Khan is a Pakistani-American writer. She is the author of the middle grade novels Amina’s Voice, Amina’s Song, and More To The Story and picture books Golden Domes And Silver Lanterns, Under My Hijab, and It’s Ramadan, Curious George, among others.
Rabiah York Lumbard is an award-winning author of the picture book, The Conference Of The Birds. Her latest picture book, The Gift Of Ramadan was highly recommended by SLJ as “a perfect addition to holiday book collections,” while her deeply personal debut novel, No True Believers draws on her experience as an American Muslim at home and abroad.
Ayesha Mattu’s two groundbreaking anthologies – Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of Muslim Women and Salaam, Love: Muslim Men on Love, Sex, and Intimacy – were featured globally by media from the New York Times to the BBC to the Jakarta Post. She was selected a “Muslim Leader of Tomorrow” by the UN Alliance of Civilizations, and is an alumna of Voices of Our Nations writers’ workshop.
Huda Al-Marashi is the author of First Comes Marriage: My Not-So-Typical American Love Story, a memoir the Washington Post called “a charming, funny, heartbreaking memoir of faith, family, and the journey to love.”
Saadia Faruqi is a Pakistani American author, essayist and interfaith activist. She writes the children’s early reader series Yasmin published by Capstone and other books for children, including middle grade novels A Place At The Table (HMH/Clarion 2020) co-written with Laura Shovan, and A Thousand Questions (Harper Collins 2020).
Hanna Alkaf graduated with a degree in journalism from Northwestern University and spent over ten years writing everything from B2B marketing emails to investigative feature articles, from non-profit press releases to corporate brochures. She now spends her time making it up as she goes along, both as an author of fiction and as a mom.
Adiba Jaigirdar was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and has been living in Dublin, Ireland from the age of ten. She has a BA in English and History, and an MA in Postcolonial Studies. She is a contributor for Bookriot. All of her writing is aided by tea, and a healthy dose of Janelle Monáe and Hayley Kiyoko.
Ashley Franklin is an African-American Muslim writer, mother, and adjunct college professor. She received her M.A. from the University of Delaware and B.A. from Albright College, both in English Literature.
headscarves & hardbacks 