The Launch of a Dream - Weavers Literary Review

I knew I'd start a literary magazine dedicated to promoting and showcasing South Asian American writing one day. I just didn't know when it would happen. I have always admired the dedication and grit exhibited by my friend Syed Afzal Haider and team (English), Ajmal Kamal from Karachi (Urdu), and Maqsood Saqib  and Faiza Rana in Lahore (Punjabi).

I learned the ropes over the years and I like to believe that I have earned the respect of my fellow writers to be trusted with their work under my custodianship to be treated fairly and with love. I have also been lucky to have been invited to put together two important collections: A Letter from India; contemporary Short Stories from Pakistan (Penguin, India) and Chicago Quarterly Review's The South Asian American Issue.

My wife and artist, Amna Ali, has been a constant presence in this endeavor, from designing to proofreading to creating the order in which poetry and prose jostled for space. With mutual agreement, we decided that we didn't want Weavers Literary Review to be a platform of exclusivity but rather of inclusivity. That's why we wrote on the inside page A Home for Writings by South Asian Americans and Others. The Others are more than welcome! That is our message. We are writers and our roles is to teach empathy and build bridges and challenge status quo and hatred which politicians and foolish think tanks and lobbyists throw in our path. It was my honor to be able to set the inaugural reading at my favorite bookstore Adobe Books in San Francisco on June 5. The readers who graced the occasion were in the following order: Naia Chien, Sophia Naz, Mira Pasikov, Shikha Malaviya and a surprise appearance by Brian Ang, whose work will appear in the next issue. Unfortunately Ujjagar and Monica Mody couldn't make it to the reading. We missed you. It turned out to be a jam-packed session, from fellow writers to close friends to new friends I had met recently at cafes and book fairs. After a brief session of Q&A, wine flowed and strawberries crunched, a conversation among friends and acquaintances, old and new, enriched the music Ryan, an excellent host, had put on.