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    Interview with an Author - Hajera Khaja

    Interview With An Author On Writing
    This April, we're delighted to share our first audio interview of the year, with author Hajera Khaja! Hajera has been writing in one way or another for more than two decades now. She's currently a published writer of short stories and essays, an editor at Ruqaya's Bookshelf, and has been teaching creative writing and working as a writing coach since 2020. You can learn more about her and what she offers,  as well as her publications, on her site.
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    Sakina Literary Society of the Arts - Interview with An Author: Hajera Khaja

    Interested in being interviewed? Want to promote a writer friend? Reach out to us! The only requirements are: 
    1. that the participant is an author, whether published traditionally, through self-publishing, on a blog, site, fanfiction archive, Instagram, Wattpad, etc. We are not picky! We want authors to own that they're authors!
    2. the participant's work is fiction, non-fiction, fanfiction, poetry, songs, or anything else that is written (we are not interviewing artists of other media at this time, but stay tuned for changes!)
    3. the participant's work belongs to themselves (in the case of fanfiction, transformative works are allowed) and has not been "written" by generative AI
    Send us a message through our contact page and someone from our team will get in touch with you!
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    Interview with an Author - Charlene Smith

    Interview With An Author On Writing
    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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    Jessica Rodriguez Photography (IG: @jessicarodriguez.photos)

    Here's a little more about her in her own words. 

    "I loved writing when I was a child. I have vivid memories of going to the creative writing table in my first grade classroom to write stories when I finished my schoolwork early. I wrote just for fun in those days. As a teenager, I still wrote a lot, but it was mostly for school projects. ​
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    Interview with an Author - Sana Samad

    Discussion Interview With An Author On Writing
    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.
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    Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash

    What was your first creative writing piece, as far as you can remember?
    As far as I can recall, I believe it was when I was in grade 7...probably around the time I was about to leave Abu Dhabi to move to Canada. I think it was a poem to one of my friends in school.
    Did you always feel drawn to creative writing? What got you into creative writing?
    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. ​
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    Interview with an Author - Nida Rashid

    Discussion Interview With An Author On 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.
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    ​How long have you been writing? 
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    I started writing for myself when I was around 11 years old. It was always poetry to start--I loved to rhyme. 

    What was your first creative writing piece, as far as you can remember?

    I wrote a song called "Puppy Dog Face" about people who use their innocent charm to get away with mischief. The song had a great hook, "don't give me that puppy dog face, that puppy dog face". My sister and her friend found it and made so much fun of me  that I deleted it from the computer. 
    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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    Fellowship Feature - I want to be...

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    Photo by Jacob Buchhave on Unsplash

    ❝ I want to be that tree growing through stone
    Ebb the ways of brain patterns that leave me feeling alone
    I want to be the sea turtle that made it off shore
    I need to make those wizard changes to make the me more
    I want to start on that path where I have not been
    To consider new ways opportunities to help left unseen
    I want to feel strong hopeful worthy and clear
    So I can be more than just a person who was here ​❞
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    — written & submitted by Noorjahan Shaikh, member of Ink Well Collective
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    Fellowship Feature - His Beloved, My Master

    Fellowship Feature Poetry
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    Photo by Le Mucky on Unsplash

    ❝ I grew up going to Sunday school
    Little girl with big eyes and a bigger hunger for God
    Mouth so full of Arabic before I even knew what my tongue was capable of
    Allāhumma ṣalli ’ala sayyidinā Muhammad
    And that word — sayyidinā --
    That master
    Sat in my chest like a stone I was too scared to name

    Because where I’m from,
    Master was not a title of love
    Master was not a title we gave willingly
    Master was the whip that bent backs
    Master was the auction block, the blood on the bark of southern trees
    Master was the reason my last name ain’t the one God wrote for me

    So how do I, a Black woman,
    Descendant of the stolen and the unspoken,
    Pray with the word master on my tongue and mean it with love?