The Puritan Launches Summer 2019 Special Issue

Dear Readers, On this hot June morning, we are pleased to announce the launch of our 2019 special issue, What Does It Mean to Be a Muslim Writer, guest edited by Rahat Kurd! In her introduction to this issue, Rahat Kurd notes,“This platform, ‘What Does It Mean to be a Muslim Writer?’ aims to provide several possible starting points for future conversations, and to help expand the community of writers and readers who might contribute to them.” She adds, “Part of the motive for this publication is rooted in mourning, in acknowledging the devastation of increasing anti-Muslim hatred in Canada and around the world. Alongside mourning endures an equally urgent need to support writers to seize control of language to anchor their own ideas and experiences, to make worlds we’ve never seen before.” This special issue’s fiction features “Our Place” by Mona’a Malik, “Seven Lists” by Shawk Alani, and an excerpt from Blood Towers by Tariq Malik. Moving into poetry, check out seven poems from Mohja Kahf’s Hagar Poems, “Field Marks” by Laboni Islam, “Cardiopathy” and “Corner Store Pilgrim” by Efemeral, “Iftah Ya Simsim” and “Name Her Churail” by Amal Rana, “Sandbox 1” and “Sandbox 2” by Hajer Mirwali, “The Strangest of the Pilgrims are Companions” and “Salaat Al-Maghrib” by Fred Pond, “For Immigrant Parents” by Manahil Bandukwala, “Lyric/Resistance” by Anis Shivani, “Look at the Moon” and “Ghazal” by Sumayya Syed, and “Secret #3: I Hate What I’ve Become.,” “Secret #5: I Want To Ask Questions.,” “Secret #6: I Am Afraid Of The Answers.,” and “The Bird That Built Its Cage” by Wend Yasen. Finally, Barâa Arar closes out this issue with her essay “Making Peace With English: What I Learned from Reading in French.” As Rahat Kurd concludes,“The spirited and uncompromising work of fourteen very different writers appears in this publication.” We hope you enjoy this special issue. Kind regards, The Editors