Khayalami: My Home
Press Kit
Welcome! To members of the media, bloggers, book reviewers, librarians, conference organizers, book club organizers, and anyone else who has found your way here to our Press Kit. This page is where you will find all the information you may need about Khayalami: My Home in one convenient place.
Ruqayyah K. Muhammad, the author of the book, is available for interviews, speaking engagements, book signings, and appearances (note that she is resides in South Africa). She is also available to speak to book clubs via telephone conference calls or online video calls.
Press Kit Contents
Product Info (Specs)
Promotional Info (Sales Copy and Book/Author Pics)
Interview Resources (Sample Interview Topics & Questions)
Contact Information
For media queries, interview requests, event booking information, or any other questions, contact the publisher at +27 82 454 0223 / info@deeprootsbooks.com or submit your question online here.
Bio
Short Version:
As an African-American Muslim Woman residing on the continent of Africa, Ruqayyah K. Muhammad has first-hand knowledge of the perspectives, aspirations, struggles, and triumphs of some of the most marginalized voices in today’s world. Ruqayyah is a “full-time mother” to three exuberant children, although she fears the phrase fails truly convey the beautiful madness of her day-to-day life. Along with her husband, his extended family, and a close-knit community, she is working to establish a model Islamic community. Ruqayyah is also a free-lance writer whose work has appeared in such publications as The Muslim Journal, Azizah Magazine, The Flood, and The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Born in America, but now living outside of Johannesburg, South Africa, she uses her unique vantage point to shed light in dark places and, hopefully, inspire to others to do the same. Khayalami is her first book, but she hopes it won’t be her last.
Long Version:
Ruqayyah was born in the early 80s in Newark, New Jersey, U.S.A. As the youngest of eight children of Gloria Zarinah Saleem and the late Dr. Abdul Baaqee Wilson Muhammad, she considers herself uniquely favoured to have been born into a family that fostered God-consciousness, self-knowledge, curiosity, service, and love.
After an idyllic childhood spent on the U.S. Marine Corps base in Camp Lejune, North Carolina and in the small town of Andalusia, Alabama, Ruqayyah later settled with her family in Atlanta, Georgia. In Atlanta, she matriculated at the African-American Muslim-run Mohammed School System and then attended the all-woman HBCU Spelman College, majoring in Political Science. While in Atlanta, she was an active member of the Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam. She is forever grateful to each of these institutions for providing such unique safe spaces for the gathering of the extraordinary individuals she was blessed to know and love.
During a semester studying-abroad at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, she fell irrevocably in love with her now-husband Muhammad Milanzi. Following her college graduation, in 2004 she returned to South Africa to wed and live permanently. She and Muhammad live in Dawn Park, a small town near Johannesburg, with their three children Amatur-Rahman, Muhammad Al-Hasan and Faatimah Zahra.
Ruqayyah calls herself a “full-time wife and mother” although she fears the phrase fails truly convey the beautiful madness of her day-to-day life. Along with her husband, his extended family, and a close-knit community, she is working to establish a model Islamic community. Ruqayyah is also a freelance writer whose work has appeared in such publications as The Muslim Journal, Azizah Magazine, The Flood, and The Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Her deep desire and passionate prayer is to stand powerfully in her truth, share light in dark places, and inspire others to do the same. Khayalami is her first book, but she hopes it won’t be her last.
Product Info
Specs
Title: Khayalami: My Home
Author: Ruqayyah K. Muhammad
Publication date: TBD
Available at: Amazon.com, The Kindle Store, bookstores worldwide
Purchase links: Purchases can be made here. Amazon link TBD.
ISBN: paperback: 978-0-620-79597-5, ebook: TBD
Retail price: TBD
Page count: 217
Genre: Memoir
Promotional Info
Sales Copy
Short Version:
Home is where the heart is. After a decade spent as an expat from the USA living in the "New South Africa," Ruqayyah K. Muhammad has come to intimately understand that phrase. Through a creative mix of poetry, essays, letters, songs, and fanciful vignettes written over a span of more than ten years in South Africa, and with a voice vividly coloured by her unique perspective as an African-American Muslim woman, she reflects on the life she left behind and the one she has managed to build in her beautiful, ugly, inspiring, maddening, complicated new home.
Long Version:
Home is where the heart is. After a decade spent as an expat from the USA living in the “New South Africa,” Ruqayyah K. Muhammad has come to intimately understand that phrase. With a voice vividly coloured by her unique perspective as an African-American Muslim woman, she reflects on the life she left behind and the one she has managed to build in her beautiful, ugly, inspiring, maddening, complicated new home.
Through a creative mix of poetry, essays, letters, songs, and fanciful vignettes written over a span of more than ten years in South Africa, Khayalami explores a variety of topics, from love to loss, from pregnancy to politics, from creating community to cultivating knowledge of self. With warmth, insight, and honesty, Ruqayyah invites you into her home and into the inner recesses of her heart.
Ruqayyah K. Muhammad is an African-American Muslim wife, mother, and writer who has resided in South Africa since 2004. She lives in Dawn Park (a suburb of Johannesburg) with her husband and their three children. Her work has appeared in publications such as The Muslim Journal, Azizah Magazine, and The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Khayalami is her first book.
Book Pictures (Attribute Deep Roots Books)
Author Pictures (Attribute Deep Roots Books)
Book Excerpts
View excerpts from Khayalami here.
Interview Resources
Sample Interview Topics
The following are some story angles interviewers may wish to consider:
~Life of an African-American living in South Africa
~Creating a sense of home from the intersection of multiple-identities (African-American, Muslim, Woman, etc)
~Fostering connections between Africans on the Continent and in the Diaspora
~Unconventional love stories
Sample Interview Questions
The following are some sample interview questions interviewers may wish to ask:
~How did you come to live in South Africa?
~What is life like for an African-American living in South Africa?
~Why did you name your book Khayalami?
~What does 'home' mean to you?
~Why did you structure your memoir using poetry, essays, and short stories?
~How does your identity as an African-American Muslim woman affect the life you are creating for yourself in South Africa?
~How are the African-American and Black South African experiences similar and
different?
~What are some potential areas of cooperation you see for African-Americans and Black
South Africans?
Media Reactions
Media reactions to the book and author can be viewed here.
Press Release