With the launch of Season 4 of Daastan’s Stories Untold, Outcast Magazine, a South Asian queer-lit magazine founded by a Literary Fellow of Daastan, decided to hold an extension of the story writing competition to generate content and encourage stories in its own niche. Outcast Magazine worked to bring to light the presence of the LGBTQ+ community in the region of South Asia, and had had the honor of being endorsed by multiple internationally acclaimed platforms such as The CommonWealth Writers.
The Stories Untold Season 4x, conducted by Outcast Magazine
The Motive for Conducting the Competition:
We, at Daastan, recognized that abuse was an issue that transcended gender, religion, social, and traditional bounds, and so had its roots present in all kinds of society everywhere around the globe. Through this, both the team of Daastan and Outcast wanted to encourage stories of abuse to come forth from the LGBTQ community. The people who identified as any of these have, more often than not, been ostracized enough, and are at the brunt of many incidents of abuse that are enforced upon them as a way of punishment. The social stigma attached to such cases is even higher than the one attached to cases of child abuse, with people choosing to hush it up rather than talk about it so that the wrongdoers can be held responsible.
Your Response:
The magazine encouraged its writers to challenge the norms and break through the socially imposed boundary of remaining silent in the face of such evil, by raising their voice and penning down thoughtful, and inspiring work, between the word limit of 4000-6000. The competition received numerous entries from across the globe, and was a huge success. Being powered by Daastan, the finalists selected would be published in a print anthology, and the authors would receive a free copy of the published work. Along with this, they would also be awarded with a certificate and their names displayed on both the website as well as the Facebook page to help them gain publicity for their work.
[Short Story Contest Results]The wait has been long but it's finally over. We present to you the winner!Congratulations to Barnali Ray Shukla on winning the contest with her brilliant short story titled A Wedding Song.And congratulations to all the finalists on being a part of our upcoming anthology.All the stories were an absolute pleasure to read and we can't wait to share them. You'll be able to place orders for the print edition in the coming week so keep your eyes on our posts. P.S. 10 points to anyone who can guess the title of the anthology :)#OutcastMagazine #queerlit #VoicesUnveiled
In the Spring of 2018, Daastan had the honor of being the team of choice for Ms. Iqra Saeed, who wanted to publish her debut book through Qissa. Her book, “Light Upon Light – Reflections”, was extremely special in the sense that it was to become the first book based on Islam being published on Qissa self-publishing. The team was over joyed to have a chance at spreading the message of peace through this book, and helping their community reconnect with the beautiful religion that is Islam.
About the Book:
Light Upon Light was non-fiction, and focused on imparting authentic lessons that would help us better understand the code of life we followed, and renew our faith and relation with Allah SWT. The writing itself was exceptional and one of a kind, as it helped the readers tackle and walk through the emotional turmoil of everyday life. Her book took references from Islamic history, and through that assisted the reader in finding the right path. It was targeted at those who found themselves at their weakest, with no one to turn to but Allah, and encouraged them to take on their trials with patience and believe that no matter how broken and damaged they were, they would always be welcome at the gates that lead toward righteousness. It inspired one to seek out eternal joy in His remembrance, and improve our deeds for the hereafter.
Excerpt from Light Upon Light by Ms. Iqra
Bringing the Book to Print:
Daastan campaigned for the funding required to bring Ms. Iqra’s work to print, and helped raise 16,000 PKR which took a little more than a month. It was successfully completed and we published a hundred copies of her book. The company faced extensive criticism at an instance before where they helped their Literary Fellow set up their own magazine. With this book coming out however, Daastan proved that their team’s ideals were aimed towards carving out a path for whoever sought them out, and bringing their work to light no matter the challenges faced by them while doing so. Later on, Daastan also helped the author by powering the literary events in IST Youth Carnival, which was being held in her hometown, and provided her with resources to exhibit her book to garner more sales.
Ms. Iqra put up a stall, powered by Daastan, to showcase her book in the IST Youth Carnival
If you have a book that you want to share with the world, drop us a message and let us bring it to print ready format and publish it.
Daastan took over the digital space after graduating from Telenor Velocity, had authors singing up by the hundreds, and was creating waves in the trade of writing in Pakistan. With Qissa leading at the forefront, it was only natural that the team started to think of ways to expand their message to the populace previously untouched due to biased social media algorithms, lack of connectivity to the relevant resources, or dearth of awareness regarding how we worked and why it mattered. To address this, Daastan’s team geared up to hold campus drives all across Pakistan.
How to Connect with Daastan:
The idea was simple; we invited our family online to drop us an email at merasawal@daastan.com or message us on our Facebook page or website if they wanted us to visit their campus. From there on, the team of Daastan would try to reach out to their resources in the said city, get in contact with the authorities or concerned people at the University campus they were planning on visiting, set a date and arrange a small event to which students would be invited. The invites that followed were received from all sorts of individuals of our community. We visited campuses where our members worked or studied, Universities in which we were hosted by our published writers and story competition winners, and places where we were invited simply because a person chose to volunteer with us as a literary activist to learn about self-publishing and get their fellows interested in literature.
The Impact:
What started as a few visits to some universities, ended up as a full-blown offline movement in which more than 40 campuses were visited to gather the literati from all over the country and walk them through the literature industry and its workings in the most transparent way. We were welcomed into campuses of Karachi such as NEDUET, to those of Multan like Bahauddin Zikriya University. In Lahore doors of the UMT were opened to us, in Islamabad those of COMSATS, and in Rawalpindi we made waves in a session so exuberant in FUMC, it left a mark on all that attended it. The team would go spearheaded by one or another executive member, hold an interactive session with the students and answer their questions regarding Daastan and Qissa publishing, set up a stall with our published books and cool bookmarks, and connect with all the hidden gems of the literary community.
Team Daastan at UMT Lahore
Honorary Invites:
Along with this, the team was also invited to speak in numerous literary fests all across Pakistan. Our Managing Director was invited to speak as a panelist in King Edwards Literary Festival ‘17, while Daastan’s founder himself, accompanied by Ms. Sameen Aziz – graduate of Daastan’s second batch of Literary Fellowship, represented Daastan at KATH ’18 . In each campus drive, a prize distribution ceremony would be held to appreciate our writers.
Somewhere in the humdrum that was the year 2017, Daastan’s co-founder Sidra Amin took it upon herself to launch a platform that worked solely for the propagation of literature through offline events. For months before the forum was founded, Sidra hunted for literati and like-minded individuals with a heart filled with sheer love for literature and related arts. In mid-summer, it finally came into being, and was named ‘Words and Metaphors’. They had the pleasure of introducing to KPK its very first spoken word performance by their debut artist Mr. Kayenaat Hameed Khattak.
Words and Metaphors, KPK’s first Spoken word platform
Core Team of Words and Metaphors. Ms. Sidra (left), Ms. Kayenaat (middle), Ms. Hira (right)
Literary Evenings Volume 1:
Almost a year later, Daastan powered what was to become the signature event series of Words and Metaphors, titled “Literary Evenings”. The idea was to initiate a chain of events solely focused on encouraging the literature invested local community artists, and bring their work out into the open. The first volume of Literary Evenings, held in the city of Peshawar, had a two-tiered agenda. The first, was to hold a Poetry Slam Contest between the poets of the city, in both Urdu and English. The contest was divided into three rounds, each with its own unique theme to challenge the performer and their written content. A panel of three exceptionally qualified judges was assembled, which consisted of a research scholar pursuing her MPhil in Literature, Founder Daastan, and Co-founder Words and Metaphors, each especially suited to evaluate the poet’s abilities of speech, written word and body language.
The second purpose of the event was to hold abook launch for the most talented writer of Qissa, who also had the honor of being the fastest crowd funded author of Daastan, Ms. Laiba Sehrish Nawaz. Her book, Abduction from the Lethe, had hundreds of entries of poem and prose, which she had written since she was a little child, as well as art and photography that resonated with her work.
The turnout of Literary Evenings Vol. 1
The Footprint:
The event had an astounding turnout. More than 50 people showed up to witness the rise of the empire of literature, and cheer for those who had accomplished their dreams and visions related to it. The guest of honor was Dr. Nasir Jamal Khattak, a professor at the University of Peshawar who wowed the crowd with his soul-searching talk about realizing one’s inner potential.
Prof. Dr. Nasir Jamal Khattak, the guest of honor of the event
Three winners of the Poetry Slam contest were selected and were awarded gifts from Daastan. The book launch also received media coverage from multiple news channels, such as Geo News.
Ms. Wafa Farooq, the winner of the Slam Poetry Competition
Mr. Adil Yousaf, who stood second in he competition
Ms. Kayenaat Hameed Khattak stood third.
If you require services to organize a literary event offline, reach out and drop a message with Daastan or Words and Metaphors.
Over the past one year of operation, Qissa has had the honor of publishing both young and old, of re-securing rights to previously published works and finding diamonds in the rough through the biannual conduction of the competition,The Stories Untold, and helping writers launch their writing careers by publishing their books both digitally as well as in print. The team believes that the younger ones who found their way to Daastan and got published, will turn into exceptionally brilliant best-selling writers because of their head start on those who never had the opportunity to share their stories with the public. And those who finally had the opportunity, albeit later in life, to publish their work – would bring an enormous amount of wisdom and knowledge to Qissa, sharing it with the world through us.
Ms. Faiza Kayani:
One such exceptional case was that of Ms. Faiza Kayani. A Sargentin the armed forces, Ms. Faiza joined Daastan to publish her debut Urdu poetry book“Muhabbat Gustakh Hoti Hay”. Her book was a wonderfully written piece which recounted the story of the numerous hardships and challenges she had faced throughout her life, and everything she counted on to keep her going. Born in a military background, her love to join the armed forces dominated everything in her life, and she finally achieved her dream by working harder than she had for anything ever. When she reached out to Daastan, she was serving as a commando in the Pakistan Army.
Muhabbat Gustakh Hoti Hay, Authored by Ms. Faiza Kayani
What Made Writing of the Book Possible:
Being a fine public speaker throughout her years of schooling, writing and poetry came naturally to her, and it is visible in the passionate way she expresses her feelings. Her book is about all the hindrances that a girl faces in our society, and provides motivation to the reader to rise above them and never bow down to anything that limits them. She encourages girls to specially to read her book, as she knows they will be able to understand and connect with her journey on an emotional level. If you are a girl, then this is something which you would be able to connect with on a very spiritual level. Her book raised 15,000 PKR through crowdfunding and was brought to print through us. If you have a manuscript that you want us to publish, reach out to us at our Facebook page or on our Website.
