Poets redefine Muslim identities at Sydney Writers’ Festival 

SYDNEY, Australia (MNTV) – Muslim authors and editors shone brightly at the Sydney Writers’ Festival, challenging and redefining what it means to be Muslim in Australia today.  

They offered bold, intimate, and richly layered storytelling that invited audiences to see Muslim identities as complex, evolving, and inseparable from the story of contemporary Australia, reports Australian Muslim Times.

Poets and editors Sara M Saleh, a Palestinian-Egyptian-Lebanese Australian, and Zainab Syed, a Pakistani-Australian, talked about Ritual, a new poetry anthology that brings together the voices of Muslim authors across Australia. Interspersed between their dialogue were powerful readings from poets whose works are featured in the collection.

Syed was in Pakistan when the conflict over Kashmir ignited, a time heavy with uncertainty and grief. Yet, in the face of darkness, Syed refused to surrender to despair.

She reminded the audience that even Rumi, the great Sufi poet, wrote in the shadow of immense violence. His verses, she suggested, can be read as acts of quiet resistance, a protest against forgetting.

“Poetry, as ritual, as prayer, as inheritance,” Syed said, “can stand as a sovereign record of our whole selves.”

The poets read from their work, each voice distinct, each narrative layered with personal and political resonance. The readings captured the multiplicity of Muslim identities in Australia, identities that resist simplification.

At another session, The Books of Everything, Yumna Kassab, Parramatta’s inaugural Laureate of Literature, invited the audience into an exploration that blurred the boundaries between form, politics, and personal history.

Kassab, the acclaimed author of The House of Youssef, Australiana, The Lovers, and Politica, brought a voice deeply rooted in the streets of Western Sydney but expansive in its reach.

Politica, which she describes as an imaginary history of the Arab world or a feminine retelling of politics, challenges conventional historical narratives and amplifies stories often left untold.

For Fatima, an attendee whose parents migrated from Pakistan, the session resonated on a profoundly personal level. “When you come to such places and listen to the talk of these amazing authors with Muslim migrant backgrounds,” she said, “you realise that your identities as Muslims are not what some movies and media reports portray us to be. We are contributing to our new and vibrant home, Australia. As a third-culture kid, I am proud of both my roots and my current home.”

Fatima’s reflections echoed a quiet sentiment threading through the session: Muslim identities in Australia are not monolithic, nor are they confined to the reductive images often seen in mainstream media.

For Fatima, authors like Kassab embody the resilience and richness of migrant stories, offering not just counter-narratives but authentic expressions of life, achievement, and complexity within Sydney’s cultural fabric.

At another session, titled Hidden Beginnings, Hasib Hourani, a Lebanese-Palestinian, and Sara Haddad, a Lebanese-Australian, brought their distinctive perspectives to the stage, weaving stories of resilience and cultural memory.

Their work powerfully expanded the conversation on what it means to live, write, and create in contemporary Australia.

Sarah Kareem, a Muslim migrant mother attending with her 12-year-old daughter, shared a thoughtful reflection.

“No doubt, I enjoyed the sessions; it was a day full of fun and wonderful activities,” she said. “But I couldn’t help noticing that within the Muslim community, we don’t focus on art, literature, or storytelling as much as we should. We’re often more focused on finance or material success. If we invest in our children’s education and encourage creative growth, we could see far more than just five or six Muslim names in Australia’s literary landscape.”