Author: 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.
editing

Editorial services open!

Raidah Shah Idil

I’m excited to share that I’m ready to take on new manuscripts! I would love to support you on your querying journey, especially if you’re a marginalised author.

Click here for my editorial rates, and click here to contact me. I’m looking forward to hearing from you. My slots close on August 31st.

August 1-2 #DVPIT has come and gone. If you participated, I hope you had a great time. I remember the thrill of getting agent and editor likes back in 2020! Interestingly, none of my #DVPIT likes led to my offer of representation. I had lots of agent interest, partial requests that turned to full requests but my one incredible agent offer was via regular cold querying. Even though querying is harder than ever, please trust that it’s not a reflection on the worth of your book, or your ability as a writer.

If you didn’t get any agent likes (or less than everyone else) – don’t fret! It’s not easy summarising an entire book into a tweet. Keep writing! Also, take breaks. Breaks are important too.

Interview, SBS

Let Me Tell You SBS podcast

Raidah Shah Idil

I’ve been sitting on this for a while and am SO excited to share my upcoming podcast episode with SBS!

‘Let Me Tell You‘ is a new SBS Voices podcast where eight Australians share the stories that shook them, and shaped who they are.

It was a delight and honour being interviewed by Caitlin Chang and Sarah Malik. Thank you to them and the amazing sound team – Jeremy and Max. My free hours during the daytime are few and far in between, and I’m so grateful the SBS team worked around my busy schedule and pulled off such a wonderful interview across timezones.

My episode is scheduled to launch on July 6th, and two episodes are live so far:

Ep 1: https://pod.fo/e/12a195

Ep 2: https://pod.fo/e/12a1b5


editing, sensitivity read

Stay tuned for more…

Raidah Shah Idil

I’m SO excited to announce that I’ll be opening my editorial, counseling and sensitivity reader services in July, inshaAllah! Slots are very limited so please get your name down on my waitlist by clicking here.

My sensitivity reader review from Hana Lee (Hi Hana!):

I had a fantastic experience with Raidah’s sensitivity reader services! She read the manuscript (twice!) within my requested reading period, made notes as she went along, and sent me a full write-up when she was finished. I really appreciate that she not only called out the terms I was using that carried significance I wasn’t aware of, but also offered suggestions for replacing them. She also commented on examples of representation she felt were done well. While it’s important as a writer to know where you can do better, it’s also helpful to know what you’re doing right! I would definitely recommend Raidah’s services to anyone looking for a skilled and thoughtful Muslim sensitivity reader.

Life, Movies

Netflix movie recc: Suatu Ketika

Raidah Shah Idil

If you’re looking for a feel-good, heartwrenching Malaysian movie, look no further than Suatu Ketika/Once Upon A Time. It’s based in 1952 Malaysia and my husband and I loved it. The movie had gorgeous cinematography, excellent casting, such loving attention to detail, heart-wrenching plot twists – all the things!

I was born in the 1980s in Singapore and my parents were born in the 1950s, so it was wonderful to watch a reimagining of 1952 Malaysia. Those barefoot football scenes in the rain were utter nostalgic perfection. I’m looking out for more movies by Malaysian director Prakash Murugiah!