Arabic Science Fiction: A Journey Into the Unknown

Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar writes on Arabic Science Fiction: A Journey into the Unknown: This past decade has seen a shift in the Arab zeitgeist. There is an acute confidence among creators and audiences which is propelling Arabic sci-fi forward. Over the past years, more writers, filmmakers, artists and many others have utilized the genre in...

Saladin Ahmed on Islamic Folklore

Over at Fantasy Magazine, Saladin Ahmed talks about The Messengers, Monsters, and Moral Instructors of Islamic Literature: The lore of every culture in human history contains sentient beings that are more than or less than human. Elves and vampires, nagas and orishas, daemons and spirit animals—each of these creatures has powers beyond those of mortal men...

Islamscifi.com Interviews Achmed Khammas

Islamscifi.com interview Achmed Khammas: Backgound: This is the first interview in a series of interviews with Muslim Science Fiction authors and people who have written about Sciene Fiction with Islamic themes. Achmed Adolf Wolfgang Khammas has written on the subject of the lack of Science Fiction in Arabic Literature and has written Sciene Fiction stories...

A Literary Review and Comparative Essay on Islam in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Originally published in the journal Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction Issue 105: Fall 2009, Islam and Science Fiction has posted A Literary Review and Comparative Essay on Islam in Science Fiction and Fantasy (pdf): "This article will provide a literary review of some scholarly writings on Islamic science fiction and fantasy and an...

Islam and Science Fiction interviews Yahiya Emerick

Islam and Science Fiction has an interview with educator and author Yahiya Emerick. Here's an excerpt: Do you think there is a general lack of interest in Science Fiction in the Muslim community? Yahya Emerick: Not to sound alarmist, but it has been my experience that any type of fiction in general has had a...

Islam Sci Fi Interview of Steven Barnes

Islam and Science Fiction has an interview with Steven Barnes. Here's an excerpt: M. Aurangzeb: The Muslims in your stories are multi-faceted characters while in a lot of other literature they are presented as one-dimensional in character usually represented as the other, what role do you think fiction has in healing between people? Steven Barnes:...

Amal El-Mohtar on Fantasy, The Middle-East, and a Conversation with Saladin Ahmed

Over at Blackgate, Amal El-Mohtar talks about her Middle-East experience, and interviews Saladin Ahmed. Here's an excerpt from her essay and interview respectively: Over the last nine years, I’ve had occasion to be startled, and then to cease to be startled, by the extent to which my Middle-Eastern-ness gets conflated with Muslim-ness as a matter...

Apex Magazine special Arab/Muslim issue released

Apex Magazine's latest issue is a special Arab/Muslim themed issue: Fiction: “The Green Book” by Amal El-Mohtar “50 Fatwas for the Virtuous Vampire” by Pamela K. Taylor "The Faithful Soldier, Prompted" by Saladin Ahmed Reprints: "Kamer-taj the Moon-horse" compiled by Dr. Ignácz Kúnos (originally appeared in Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales) Poetry: "Me and Rumi's Ghost" by...

Muslim Superheroes The 99 at the Guardian Newspaper

We've previously reported on Islamic superhero series The 99, but now the UK's Guardian newspaper has picked up the story as well, following an announced television series for the comics! Even if you deliberately set out to try to dream up the least probable superhero ever, it's unlikely that you'd manage to come up with...

A Teachable Moment

Ok, we're not sure what "a teachable moment" means, exactly, but it's an Americanism and we loves Americanisms. As James Gunn so helpfully pointed out, American science fiction is the base line against which all the other fantastic literatures in languages other than English must be measured. No, seriously. Apparently it was the idea that...