catvalente

I was thinking the other day about the whole horrifying Elizabeth Moon situation.

I don't like to just watch bad things happen and make outraged noises and then go back to reading the intertubes like nothing happened. I always want to do something--something positive, something that stands on its own and says something good just by being. I can't do anything about Moon or Wiscon or any of it. I'm not on the concom and I'm not a habitual buyer of Moon's books.

What I am is the editor of Apex Magazine.

And I have the Wand of Editorial Oomph.

I would like to announce that the November issue of Apex will be an entirely Arab/Muslim issue. It will be beautiful. It will showcase writers of Arab descent and Muslim writers. (I am aware that many folk not of Arab descent are Muslim, that's why I'm structuring it this way, so that writers from either culture or both can be part of the issue.) It will show how Islam is as much a part of the human experience as any other faith or story system that writers of the fantastic draw from. It will be a small thing, in the grand scheme. It will not save the world. But it will exist, and perhaps in its own way can stand beside the recent ugliness in the SFF world as something bright and good.

I am looking for material, but most especially poetry, from Muslim authors and authors of Arab descent. Let's make it easy: if you think you might "count," then you do. Southeast Asian Muslims, yes. American Muslims, yes. Anybody with a connection to the cultures of Islam, yes. The subject of your works can be anything you like, but I am only looking for authors with connections to Islam and/or the Arabic world. Please do not send reprints, we have that covered.

I want to do what I can. This is a thing I can do. I believe it will be extraordinary.