How exciting! I just emailed my essay proposal to John Marnell from Overland journal. A good friend of mine posted the Overland call for Muslim Essayists onmy FB wall on Friday, and I’ve put something together over the past few days. Big thanks to my husband, family and Lisa for proof-reading my essay proposal. I haven’t written an essay proposal or anything vaguely resembling an essay since my university days, so writing for Overland was a fantastic exercise in reawakening dormant brain cells lol. I think it’s awesome to see Overland encouraging Muslim essayists to write. Everyone else loves talking about Muslims, and a lot of it is inaccurate, to say the least. If we don’t do the talking ourselves, who will?
Overland journal
Published by Raidah Shah Idil
Raidah Shah Idil is a student counsellor, poet, writer, and creative instructor with a passion for YA (young adult), fantasy, sci-fi and detective fiction. She was born in Singapore and moved to Australia at the age of 12. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (English) and Bachelor of Science (Psychology) from the University of New South Wales in 2005. After working as a marketing copywriter and studying the Islamic Sciences in Amman, Jordan for nearly two years, she returned to Sydney, got married, then moved to Malaysia. While working as a part-time tutor at Axiom Learning, she works as an online counsellor for Seekershub Global. She has completed her Diploma of Counselling through the Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors. Her full-time job is raising her baby daughter. Everything else is squeezed in between. Literally. Her writing has been published in The Feminist Wire, SISTERS magazine, Daily Life, Lip Mag and Venture Beat. Raidah’s poetry was recently published in the ‘Armed With Only Our Souls’ online DDFS chapbook by New York poet Caits Meissner. Her debut double-featured novel, “Finding Jamilah and the Story of Yusuf” was published by MyLegacy publications in early 2014. In her spare time (ha), she reads, listens to audiobooks, goes on walks, and is always on the lookout for tasty noodle soup. She currently lives in a green, leafy suburb in Kuala Lumpur with her husband, three small children and mother-in-law. View all posts by Raidah Shah Idil
I haven’t written an essay in age! It’s great that this journal is looking for Muslim voices. Like you said, so much of what is being said about Muslims are not coming from Muslims themselves. Tawfiq with the essay proposal. Keep me updated 🙂
Ameen inshaAllah!