Qissa has worked hard to bring together people from all walks of life. If there lives inside you a storyteller who has the ability and creativity you will find your way to art. Literature enables people to truly be themselves, and sometimes, even more– despite any prosecution or judgement from the world.
What is the purpose of Qissa
It was our ambition to empower the artist that lives within you. We wanted to give people the motivation to spin words into tales, without having to worry about any of the procedure that follows. And we knew we were on the right track when, despite rejection and demotivating factors we received an overwhelming response. From your support, love, and eagerness to be a part of our platform, we collected our strength to expand our operations.
About Qissa’s Author
Qissa gained popularity and as a result, we started receiving the attention of highly qualified people from many different fields. One of the authors who joined us, Ms. Hafsa, was a geneticist. She believed in finding a fix to problems no matter how deep she needed to dive in. Her book “Hossana”, is a collection of poems with illustrations, which was crowdfunded and brought to print. Different languages and genres are featured in it. The book is divided into 3 sections. The first one raises questions that go bone deep and rattle one’s perceptions about life. The second part provides answers, helping us reconcile with reality. The last is titled ‘messages’, connecting us irreversibly with the author who takes us along this journey of thoughts and knowledge.
We are proud to assist such talented writers who are struggling to contribute to the publishing industry of Pakistan. It gives us immense joy to see our literary society growing. Sign up with us at Daastan if you are that author who wishes to get published. Let us grow together!
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.
