Director: Linda D. Delgado (Sister Widad) Assistant Director: Mahasin D. Shamsid-Deen Secretary: Balqees Mohammed Financial Officer: S. E. Jihad Levine (Sister Safiyyah) Marketing Officer: Zabrina bint Abu Bakr Legal Officer:Deborah McNichol (serving in a non-voting, advisor capacity)
Each of these elected positions of the Board of Directors is on a volunteer basis.
Work for Hire Positions –
Sister Umm Junayd bint Naeem is the Editor in Chief of Islamic Ink, IWA’s quarterly magazine.
The Poetry anthology Many Poetic Voices, One Faith produced by IWA and published by MWP (Muslim Writers Publishing), was published and released in August 2009. Complimentary copies (one each) were sent to the contributing authors, illustrators, and other professionals who made this anthology possible.
The Islamic Fiction anthology Many Voices, One Faith II-Islamic Fiction Stories was published and released during the month of October 2009. Contributors’ complimentary copies were sent to those authors and artists that contribute to its completion.
For more information on both anthologies and directives on how to purchase, log onto the IWA website: www.islamicwritersalliance.net, or go directly to the publisher: www.muslimwrietrspublishing.com. You may also contact any of the IWA Board directors for information on purchasing.
For those outside of the USA or having an international shipping address, you will most likely need to make your orders via an international retailer. Listings should be available through Amazon as well as other various international booksellers.
Although books will not be sold or distributed on consignment, retailers are eligible for a 40% discount off list price, which is $8.95.
For those interested in advertising the books on your sites or blogs, contact Sr. Zabrina, IWA Marketing Officer, to attain the new IWA logo/banner and jpg with text for the anthology for addition to your site.
Orders from buyers and retailers can also be obtained and referred back to the IWA or MWP for sales.
IWA Catalog:
A comprehensive listing of all participating IWA members who have paid for advertisement for their inclusion, this catalog is an excellent additional marketing tool at a reasonably low price for all and any members interested in being included in future updates It is also an excellent and helpful marketing tool to have on hand when visiting bookstores, schools, educational professionals, or anyone else who you are interested in raising interest with for the presence and purpose of the IWA.
To view the catalog, log onto the website: www.islamicwritersalliance.net and then choose the catalog from the navigational links on the left.
For those interested in downloading a printable version, please contact the IWA Marketing Officer, Sr. Zabrina or the IWA Director, Sr. Safiyyah.
501C3 Non-Profit Status & Administrative Measures
As of September 11, 2009, the IWA achieved non-profit status, and is now officially known as Islamic Writers Alliance, Inc.
Measures are to resume soon for application of IRS qualification, which will mean that we will be eligible to receive tax-exempting donations.
IWA Website
With the commencement of the year of 2010 on January 1, we were left without a valid administrator for the website, due to the recent resignation of Umm Junayd from the position. That transformed into the need to contract a new hosting service more compatible for the current Board members to operate, seeing as how no valid candidate came forward, neither from within the IWA nor from without. The domain name has remained the same, but the hosting service is new, and much of the material on the site has been re-arranged and reviewed and updated to reveal this new measure.
The IWA website has much to offer all in the form of information about the IWA present and past, as well as the various products and services available through this international group of professionals dedicated to producing and dispersing quality Islamic Literature.
IWA members and associates-do not miss out on this grand opportunity for yourselves in the form of some free and some very nominally priced advertising opportunities. For the members, there is free of charge the chance to publicize your talents via the Members’ Page venue. Attention Associates: this is a great incentive on its own to become a due-paying member.
An important new addition to the site is the Business Directory, which is a listing of all IWA members and associates who have a business outside of their writing work or completely different from their association with the IWA. There is also the pages of “Books & More”, which was previously the “Bookstore”, which is a listing of those published authors, editors, publishers, artists and more desiring this additional spotlight to showcase their work. In addition, there are pages to update you on the history and evolution of the IWA, as well as regular monthly updates concerning important news as well as updates to the members’ pages.
Another new section soon to be implemented is the Young Authors’ Pages, which will be similar to the current Members’ Pages in that it is where the participating young authors have a page to represent them and their work, including the option of the display of one jpg showing their published work. More will come on this as this project develops.
Islamic Ink is the quarterly published online magazine showcasing both IWA talent as well as news and updates of the organization, available for subscription via the IWA website: www.islamicwritersalliance.net. Past editions can be viewed via the IWA website.
Administrative Measures
By mid-January 2010, the transitional change of the two officers: Financial Officer and Director, was completed.
Sr. Widad, in her new role as Director, spent most of the month gathering all the old information from the previous IWA website, and trimming it and editing out old and outdated material as well as collecting new and valid material to be applied to the new website. She worked during the month in coordination with the rest of the Board, with Sis Balqees uploading most of the material to the new website.
Taking on her role as new Financial Officer of the IWA as of January 1, 2010, sis Safiyyah announced on January 14 the establishment of the PayPal account for the IWA, and a valid working Bank Account was established on January 23, 2010. As the new Financial Officer, Sis Safiyyah also took care of the payment of a year’s service of the new website hosting, to ensure that the website remains online for the next twelve months.
They will be having a stand and a workshop for aspiring authors. She has offered to display your books and/or flyers or advertisements or even business cards. Anyone interested should contact her off-list to get her mailing address. She can be reached at: http://www.alhidaayah.net/soumyana/.
The theme this year is "MUSLIM WOMEN, A VOICE FOR PEACE". It will be held at UD Kennedy Union on Saturday March 6th 2010, 10 AM-6 PM. Michigan State representative Rashida Tlaib will be the keynote speaker for the conference. She will talk about "My life story, from a Muslim Girl in Public School to Michigan State House"
IWA Member News & Accomplishments:
Sr. Julie Mairinforms us of the recent publication of her second children’s book: The Perfect Gift, published by The Islamic Foundation.
Linda D. Delgado(Sr. Widad) is pleased to report that a teacher at the Islamic School of Rhode Island requested a copy of the teacher study guide (TSG), authored by Saba Negash, for the IF novel, Sophia's Journal: Time Warp 1857 authored by Najiyah Helawni. The book and TSG are being used in the classroom with students as part of their reading program. The teacher reported she is very pleased with the quality of the book and TSG and the students are enjoying the story as well as activities presented in the TSG.
Linda D. Delgado is pleased to report that an ESL teacher living in Saudi Arabia has ordered three MWP published books to use with students in the reading program she teaches. The books selected for students are: Sophia's Journal: Time Warp 1857 with accompanying TSG, Star Writers: How to Write Islamic Stories, and The Gift.
Linda D. Delgado, working as the Director of IWA, and with the IWA Secretary, Balqees Mohammed, has been busy most of the month of January editing and putting together content for the new IWA web site being designed by Sister Balqees. The IWA Board hopes to have the new website open for visitors within the next week.
Br. Yahiya Emerickpleasingly tells us of the good news that his recent translation of the Holy Quran, A Journey Through the Holy Quran, is now available to the public.
Br. Tarek Chamkhi, Editor-in-Chief of Crescent Times of Australia, announced the special limited edition of the first of his publication of this New Year. A pdf copy of the limited edition of the January 2010 publication of Crescent Times was sent to all IWA members via the IWA egroup.
For more information on how to view this as well as other editions, please log onto: www.cresecenttimes.com.au.
Sr. Brandy AZ Chase reported of a Poetry Party she held at her house, hosting 8 sisters and 15-17 children for beverages and snacks and gathering to read and discuss literary topics (either poetry or other books of Islamic value). She reports of a successful gathering for all, having held the children’s’ discussion group first to free them off to play while the mothers then had their own discussion group.
She shared the two most recent IWA anthologies published by MWP in 2009, while her daughter insisted to share Sophia’s Journal with the other children.
She plans to hold such similar parties in the future, either in her own home or elsewhere. A great beginning towards her goal of making a Book club and a bookstore in her area.
After doing an informal survey in her region, Sis Brandy is intent upon building up her own specialty bookstore, catering to the Muslim and non-Muslim public in her area who are concerned and desiring to acquire good quality Islamic literature. She has found that there definitely is a niche and space for such a venture in her region, and plans tentatively to name her store “Crescent Pen Bookstore & Café.
Sr. Balqees Mohammed, IWA Secretary, announces that during the month of January 2010, she completed yet another re-editing of a manuscript she did the previous month: that of the English translation of the Arabic original of Etiquettes for those Intending Hajj or Umrah, because the first rendition had many errors and so the author corrected them and returned to her for a second review.
For the rest of the month, she put all other items of her own writing and editing aside to attend to the matter of taking care of the need to establish a new website for the IWA on another hosting site, one which she and other Board members could manage to operate without the need of knowledge of Dreamweaver or other similar programming techniques.
She and sis Widad, IWA Director, were busy most of the month getting the material together and in correct order and uploading it to the new site.
