Salaam Reader, I haven’t been writing much these days despite having projects I want to work on — picture book drafts that need revision, an idea for a novel, and even a memoir. When life gets busy and hectic, the easiest ball to drop is my writing. And when I’ve gone on long enough without having written, it feels like I’ve lost my stride, like I’ll never be able to write something good again. And that spirals into: what’s the point of writing anyway because there is so much other important...

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...