We were pleased to welcome the fellowship programming committee for our Muslim Storytellers Fellowship to our latest #HFGather. The committee members are Muslim authors at various points in their journey of creating for children and teens, including S.K. Ali, Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, M.O. Yuksel, Neda Hashmi, Narmeen Lakhani, and Zaynah Qutubuddin. They hope that the diversity and plurality of the Muslim community and Muslim narratives will shine through in this program, and that it will create a lasting community of Muslim children’s authors and illustrators across backgrounds.
Gather attendees caught a glimpse of how powerful this community could be as the authors shared some personal responses about:
- Why they write for children
- Where they are in their writing journeys
- What they write for children and teens
- What it means to be a Muslim storyteller
- Their hopes for changes in the kidlit publishing industry
As S.K. Ali said: “The change is happening and this program is part of that change.”
Watch the #HFGather below:
Please note: we have added closed captions to the video below; if you don’t see them, hover over the bottom of the video and choose the “CC” icon.
Please note: the application period has closed and we have selected our 16 storytellers.
