Salaam Reader, The day that Hossam Shabat, a journalist from Gaza, was martyred, I was planning to send an email about including your writing dreams in your duas in these blessed last ten nights of Ramadan. But when I opened Instagram that morning and saw the news, a deep sense of despair set in. Watching Israel resume the horrific violence against Palestinians has been dismaying but there was something about Hossam being killed that felt like a gut punch. I used to follow him on Instagram...

Salaam Reader, Last week, I ran a free live writing session (if you joined or registered for it, thank you!) We wrote together for a fixed time to writing prompts that I shared on the call. After every few prompts, I invited writers to read what they had written. After the session, I received an almost identical message from two separate writers. They felt like they did the freewriting part all wrong. Compared to the other writers who shared their work, they felt their writing was plain and...

Salaam Reader, I didn’t used to write in Ramadan. Many years ago, before I started teaching writing, before any of my stories were published, before I began to think of my writing as something worthy of care and attention, I used to take a break from writing in Ramadan. Just like I took a break from listening to music and watching movies, I also took a break from writing. It pains me now to think that I used to treat my writing as something wasteful and indulgent — akin to watching a movie —...