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Happy March and Ramadan Mubarak to those who celebrate! This month, we're honoured to interview Charlene Smith, author of Game Changers: Stories of Hijabi Athletes from around the World. Charlene converted to Islam in 1999 when she was 19 years old. She has an identical twin sister, is married with six children (five boys and a girl), and has a 2 year old granddaughter. She loves reading, playing the daff, mountain biking, and downhill skiing.
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This month, we were delighted to interview Sana Samad, a 39 year old Canadian Pakistani mother to two young boys, who are 8 and 6 years old respectively, and whom she currently homeschools. When not being a mom, playing sports, reading, or writing, she also runs a small business called Sweet Seconds Cookies, which serves the Oshawa/Durham region in Ontario. You can find her writing on Instagram as @sana.ess and support her business at @sweet.seconds.cookies.
When I was younger, I liked writing rhyming poetry. I wasn’t good at it, but I enjoyed doing it. As an adult, I love reading a good rhyming book or poem, but I find it harder to rhyme now because I don’t want it to feel forced. Creative writing was my way to express my feelings for others and sort my own feelings as well. Writing in journals/diaries, and letters that I never posted, is what got me through the first few years of being in Canada. Who were some of the major influences/supports, real or fictional, in your creative writing journey? Honestly, I don’t know. I loved reading books and stories by Enid Blyton as a kid. My parents always encouraged us to read. I think I got my love of writing from my mother, though. Even though I don’t remember her writing creatively, I do recall her writing in her journal every day for years. Apart from my parents, one of my maternal aunts and a few friends have also been extremely supportive of my writing.
This year, we wanted to showcase authors of all sorts here at Sakina Literary Society of the Arts, and give readers and writers a look behind the scenes at different Muslim authors' writing journeys. With this, we hoped to demystify the act (and art) of writing, to showcase the vast variety of Muslim authors and their works, and to encourage you to join them in their literary endeavours without fear. We start off our 2026 interviews with Nida Rashid, author of From You...to You, Post Parting, and HumDrums. You can find her on Instagram as @ennarre.
Did you always feel drawn to poetry? What got you into writing poetry?
Yes. I always felt drawn to tones and rhythm. Poetry appealed to me, ironically because of Quran recitation (in the Quran itself, it is repeated that the Quran is not mere poetry for entertainment). The calming tones, and various recitations led me to recognize how words can carry powerful meaning in their rhythm. When I discovered spoken word poetry on Youtube, I was completely mesmerized. Once, in high school, I had to present a biology project but had only 24 hours to come up with a presentation. I realized poems are easy to memorize, so I made a 3 minute spoken word poem about the topic. My science teacher was so impressed that science could be presented in an artistic form--I got an A. From then on, whenever I needed to remember a difficult topic--I wrote a poem. Who were some of the major influences/supports, real or fictional, in your creative writing journey? Sarah Kay - her spoken word on Youtube is what helped me gain confidence to speak my poems aloud. My friends - who would read my poems and tell me they felt something in reading it. |
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