Submit to QALB
QALB publishes flash fiction, short stories, poetry, personal essays, critical essays, book reviews, interviews, craft essays and cultural criticism. Our magazine strives to be a home for bold, original writing from Muslim women around the world.
We welcome writing that brings new perspectives into ongoing conversations—whether you’re sharing the intimate, the political, the joyful, or the complex, we’re here for it. We believe in writing that moves, questions, and lingers.
We accept both previously unpublished and select reprinted work (please indicate if your submission has appeared elsewhere). Once your work is accepted and edits complete, we publish it on our website and share it with our newsletter audience. New pieces are scheduled to publish on a monthly basis.
Check out our submissions form for our guidelines.
Our respective editors have shared below what they’re looking for and what they’re inspired by.
Fiction: Flash fiction, short stories or standalone novel excerpts
Non-fiction: Personal essays, critical essays, book reviews, interviews, craft essays, cultural criticism
Fiction
Suad Kamardeen is an award-winning writer and editor, and former Head of Editorial at Amaliah. A graduate of the MSt Creative Writing program at the University of Oxford, her work bears witness to the lives, histories and cultures of Black Muslim women. Her young adult novel won the SI Leeds Literary Prize 2022 and her adult novel was shortlisted for Stylist Prize for Feminist Fiction 2021. Her writing has appeared in Rowayat, Sapelo Square, Bad Form Review and The Unheard Stories Anthology.
Here are some stories that have stayed with Suad:
Suicide, Watch – Nafissa Thompson-Spires
So Late in the Day - Claire Keegan
Every Tongue Shall Confess - ZZ Packer (from Drinking Coffee Elsewhere)
The Giver of Nicknames - Rémy Ngamije
Wednesday’s Child - Yiyun Li
Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri
Ghusl - Dima Alzayat (from Alligator and Other Stories)
Blue - Aaliyah Bilal (from Temple Folk)
Glad Tiding to the Strangers - Ambata Kazi
Good Goodbye - Shani Akilah (from For Such A Time As This)
Dear Sister - Deesha Philyaw (from The Secret Life of Church Ladies)
She is Our Stupid - Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
Sahar - Jamel Brinkley (from Witness)
Presence - Gina Chung
Manifest - ‘Pemi Aguda
Non-fiction
Here are some non-fiction pieces Suad enjoyed:
Womb and Period Hu(r)ts - Mutiah Badruddeen
The Things I Have Withheld - Kei Miller
On Writing and Critical Thinking - Mariya bint Rehan
What Draws So Many Muslim Women to Jane Austen? - Syraat Al Mustaqeem
On Being a Muslim Author: Sharing your voice is one of the most important things you can do - Nadeine Asbali
How to Write an Effective Short Story - Ambata Kazi
Poetry
Hear from our inaugural Poetry Editor, Isra Hassan:
Isra Hassan is a Somali-American poet from Minneapolis, MN. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and can be found in DMQ Review, Poetry Wales, Poet Lore, Logic(s) Magazine, New Orleans Review, Poetry Online, Michigan Quarterly Review, Guernica, The Waterstone Review, and elsewhere. NAYSAYER, her self-published debut collection, is now out. Another manuscript of hers was a finalist for the 2023 Center for African American Poetry & Poetics Book Prize.
Hassan takes the economy of truth seriously. As a lover and black nihilist, her work centers surviving during these cataclysmic times. Find her @israology on all social platforms and on her website israhassan.art
Here are some of the poems she returns to frequently, deeply admires, and/or has recently snagged her attention:
BACKWARDS - Warsan Shire [POETRY]
CHRISTENING: AN ABECEDARIAN - D. M. Aderibigbe [New England Review]
COIN - Fatima Jafar [the drift]
ETIQUETTE MANUAL FOR A CHESS PIECE - Michelle Penn [The Oxonian Review]
EX(ILE) - Desiree C. Bailey [poets.org]
FEAST, BEGINNING WITH A KISSED BLADE - Threa Almontaser [Duende]
FIG - Funto Omojola [The Baffler]
FRUIT and more- Omar Sakr [Overland]
GRENDEL - Roger Reeves [The New Yorker]
LEAVING THE RUINS - Peter Balakian [The Nation]
LIFESAVING - Jennifer Hyde [The Poetry Society]
LOST ANVIL TAPE - Jenna Taco [In the Mood Magazine]
MEDITATIONS IN AN EMERGENCY - Cameron Awkward-Rich [Split This Rock]
ON OUR BIRTHDAY, LORRAINE HANSBERRY & I DISCUSS SUNLIGHT - Tariq Thompson [The Adroit Journal]
REVENGE - Ashley Keyser [Quarterly West]
SEE YOU - Kei Gemora [Quarterly Literary Review Singapore]
SOOT - Kaveh Akbar [Blackbird]
THE PRESTIGE - Hanif Abdurraqib [poets.org]
THE REPUBLIC OF SALT - Jeffrey Liao [Ninth Letter]
THRESHOLD DAYS - Chelsea Querner [The Greensboro Review]
TITI Y CASA and more - Isa Guzman [Tilted House]