2012 Arab American Book Award

 According to this announcement:

Submissions are currently being accepted for the 2012 Arab American Book Award. Authors and publishers may contact Kristin LaLonde at 313.624.0223 or klalonde@accesscommunity.org for nomination forms and criteria. Submission deadline is February 01, 2012.

The Arab American Book Award honors significant literature by and about Arab Americans and was established by the Arab American National Museum in 2006. Categories include fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and children/young adult. Last year's winner in the children's category was Time to Pray, by Maha Addasi.

Birmingham Muslim Writers Awards 2009

Last year, I briefly mentioned the Birmingham Muslim Writers Awards, a project that started in 2006 with the goal of highlighting new literary talent in Birmingham, UK. Since then (if I've understood correctly), the project now targets Muslim writers across the UK (not just in Birmingham). The group that runs this project offers awards in several categories, including the following:

Non Fiction
Short Story
Novel
Poetry
Screenplay/Drama
Under 16s
Best Children's Story
Journalism
Academic Writing

The group started accepting entries for 2009 back in June, so check out the new website for details on how to make a submission. Also see the list of winners for 2008. This is a competition open to both published and unpublished writers.

Call for Submissions: Religious and/or Spiritual Conversion Stories

This individual is seeking the following:

Religious/spiritual conversions stories needed for serious nonfiction book – partly anthology, partly commentary. Looking for stories that show feelings and/or logic involved in moving from not caring about religion to religious belief OR how one abandoned the religion of their upbringing OR how one moved from agnosticism/atheism to a spiritual stance. Must be 100% true. Limit 1750 words.

Deadline: 10/1/2007

This may or may not be a paying opportunity. Check with the coordinator of this project for details.

Click here for contact info.

Islamic Topics of General Interest

studentBMJ is a web site and monthly medical journal "for students with an interest in medicine." It's not a Muslim publication, but I really like the way one writer came up with the idea of writing an article on How Islam Changed Medicine for this journal. It is written for a general audience and would spark the curiosity of almost anyone interested in such topics.

Opportunities like this exist in almost every publication out there - from newspapers to magazines to web sites. Right now, for example, Learning through History Magazine (which is geared to homeschoolers) is seeking articles on the Mughal Empire. Check out their Guidelines for Writers for more specific information.

Have you ever written an article on an Islamic topic for a general audience? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Resource: MESA (Middle East Studies Association)

MESA (Middle East Studies Association) is a wonderful source of writing opportunities related to Islam and Muslim issues. This page (which contains a regularly updated list of calls for submissions) currently has several items worth looking into, such as a need for articles on contemporary Muslim life, contributions to a book on Muslim "voices" in school, scholarly research on the life of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, and others.

Project for Muslim Writers in Birmingham, UK

This looks like an interesting project in Birmingham, UK:

Birmingham Libraries in partnership with Innovate Solutions (UK) is running a creative writers project with writers from the muslim community.

We are looking for authentic work from writers and budding writers from Birmingham. The piece/pieces must be original - fact or fiction, poetry or prose, weird and wonderful. Any topic will be considered - however, the more bizarre the better! Publishers are waiting to hear from you.

Read more about the project here.

Also see photos from this year's awards ceremony.