Hey there,

Salaams and love to all. As some of you are aware, I managed to get a some of my fictional work published in the Desert Rose Lit magazine recently.

This is a brand new biannual literary magazine publishing short fiction, essays, and poetry. The aim is to give a platform to women of color whose multitude of voices and experiences have so often been silenced, warped, or disregarded by the dominant literary landscape.

If you wish to read my work- a flash fiction piece and a short story, please use this link and place the PDF or ebook into your basket. If you’d like a hard copy it costs $15 and can also be ordered here.

As my first publication, I am very honoured to have made it into the very first issue and look forward to reading more feminine voices of colour in the future.

These pieces are both fictional and if you have any comments or questions, please feel free to get in touch! If you didn’t enjoy the stories, please do tell me why or how you think they can be improved. Your feedback is invaluable and I am aware of the growth that is required from me in order to do well in this field! (A criticism in between two positive comments always works well! Heehee).

I look forward to hearing from you!

So that’s it from me for now,

Until next time,

Peace and Love,

Sidra Ansari

PS To help me on my journey to enoughism I will write down 3 things I am grateful for at the end of each post. These are:

1. The Writer’s HQ twitter feed has an amazing idea of collecting 100 rejections in one year. The idea is that people react to stories in a really subjective manner and the fact that one person/editor/publisher may reject your work doesn’t mean that you will never do well or (God forbid!) that you should in fact give up. Stephen King writes in his book ‘On Writing’ that he kept a nail on his wall where he placed rejection slips and when the nail filled up he began another. It is evident that writers have to be relentless in getting their work out there. I am grateful for ideas like this. They are so positive! Then ensure that we do not give up! And that dreams can still come true, even if it doesn’t seem to be the case at first!

2. Fridays! There is a tradition of wishing people a Happy Friday (Jummah Mubarak in Arabic), it is the holiest day of the week for Muslims where we are encouraged to pray and be mindful of God that little bit more. My little sister has begun her own tradition of sending us picture messages, beautifully contrasted with photos and quotes. I look forward to these bursts of beauty and inspiration every week! Maybe one day she’ll start her own instagram page with them! Watch this space!

3. As the week comes to an end, I need to show appreciation to my husband. He isn’t perfect (and neither am I) but the world seems an easier place to navigate (not to mention the kids are more obedient!!) with him by my side and for that I am grateful, alhamduLillah.