Essential to My Survival: A Guest Post by Aaliyah Bilal
A debut worth sharing, Temple Folk is the exquisite 17th Annual Ernest J. Gaines Award-winning book. Author Aaliyah Bilal has penned an exclusive essay on her experience writing Temple Folk and what its publication means to her, down below.
Paperback $17.99
Temple Folk
Temple Folk
In Stock Online
Paperback $17.99
Aaliyah Bilal taught herself to write fiction by reading and re-reading the stories and novels of Pulitzer winner Edward P. Jones, and the result is a sublime and incredibly assured debut story collection that is a stunning read.
Aaliyah Bilal taught herself to write fiction by reading and re-reading the stories and novels of Pulitzer winner Edward P. Jones, and the result is a sublime and incredibly assured debut story collection that is a stunning read.
Writing has become essential to my survival. For many years I’d nursed a desire to tell stories of the Black American Muslim experience, because I’d never seen stories about people like me. The fact that our stories were not being told with the seriousness the experience merits created an emptiness in me that was so profound, I knew I wouldn’t be able to live happily in the world until I’d written something myself.
Beyond this, I was impeded by the fact of being self-taught, and that I no connections to the publishing world. After many years of trying to be “discovered”, I made a life-changing decision. I committed to being excellent in my own space. I gave up the hope of ever gaining traction in the industry, and decided that my own pleasure in the work was sufficient. Whether or not anyone took me seriously, I cared about the work with the kind of love a mother toward her children, and that feeling was reason enough to keep writing.
This epiphany happened at a time in life where I had lost a major anchor of meaning in my life. I was in deep mourning, and recall the intense emotions of those months. For a few hours each day, however, I was able to sit at my desk and write. The work provided more than a sense of relief from my pain— it made me feel truly magnificent. It was a healthy escape from the heaviness of life, and in that time I produced the bulk of the stories that would become Temple Folk.
I am a person who lives with some measure of faith, though this faith is very often outstripped by doubt. All the same, I have pursued the work of this book, treating all aspects of the opportunity like something holy. There have been many ups and downs in the process— though I feel a deep sense of purpose in the work. I see the world differently than most, yet comprehensively enough to have unique and valuable things to share with readers. The critical reception of Temple Folk aligned with my greatest hopes, though the broader reception was more aligned with my expectations. The rendering of the world in this book runs counter to so much of the ways that we are taught within this culture to regard the Black Muslim Movement. The rigor and integrity that I brought to the writing of this book gives me an impenetrable sense of merit. The work will endure and, I hope, make its way into many hearts.
