Writer's Expo

Two days ago I attended the first ever Writer's Expo at MuslimFest. I think it was the best part of the whole thing but I could be biased being that I am a serious book lover. There were around 20 authors sitting at tables selling their books. I got to meet Heba of the famous Release Your Inner Queen of Sheba phenomenon. I also got her book and she personally signed it. She told me an article of hers will appear in the Toronto Star tomorrow (Aug 4th) and I said I'd be sure to get it insha Allah. Huda Khattab was also there with her new book Beyond the Kitchen, also signed. Rukhsana Khan gave a speech about becoming an author and talking about her latest book Wanting Mor which I also bought and had signed. There was also a panel discussion called Meet and Mingle with Muslim journalists and Producers but I missed it because of looking after my kids needs. I wanted to talk to Rukhsana but she was gone after her speech and when she came back it was during this panel discussion. I thought she might be interested to know that even in our little town we have her book; Muslim Child and no I didn't put it there nor request it. I wanted to show her that she is indeed going mainstream which is what she is after according to her speech. Sadly this wasn't a very well attended part of the fest and I think it was partly because of its isolated location from the rest of the activities and also the lack of interest towards books that I've noticed amongst muslims. We still have a long way to go to increase awareness of muslim authors but this is a step in the right direction. Insha Allah one day we will have islamic libraries with people inside having book clubs discussing the latest bestseller and muslim bookstores in the malls and muslim book of the month clubs. Ahh I can dream can't I? Meanwhile we can all do our part to promote our ummah's literary works, one book at a time.