Banthology - by Sarah Cleave (Paperback)

About the Book

This timely, emotional anthology brings together powerful stories by writers from the seven nations included in Trump's original "Muslim travel ban."

Book Synopsis

In January 2017, President Trump signed an executive order banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries - Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen - from entering the United States, effectively slamming the door on refugees seeking safety and tearing families apart. Mass protests followed, and although the order has since been blocked, amended and challenged by judges, it still stands as one of the most discriminatory laws to be passed in the US in modern times. Banthology brings together specially commissioned stories from the original seven 'banned nations'. Covering a range of approaches - from satire, to allegory, to literary realism - it explores the emotional and personal impact of all restrictions on movement, and offers a platform to voices the White House would rather remained silent.

Review Quotes

A recommended 2018 summer read by Mythili Rao of WNYC's New Yorker Radio Hour on The Takeaway

"Banthology is a collection that doesn't just ask for knowledge and compassion, but prompts action, accountability, and change." -- The Arkansas International

"The stories shine a light on collective experiences through individual stories and might help bring about an understanding that runs counter to the demonisation of a religion and of entire nationalities through a crass, unjust and discriminatory ban." -- Susannah Tarbush, The Tanjara

"This anthology is a welcome arrival in a time that is unwelcoming in so many needless ways - at least as the US is projecting. The voices, the writing of Rania Mamoun, Zaher Omareen, Fereshteh Molavi, Najwa Binshatwan, Ubah Cristina Ah Farah, Anoud, and Wajdi al-Ahdal, as given us by their estimable translators here, are all voices and writers we should be reading and knowing in any event. May this book help us begin to know these writers, their work, and lead to a deeper, world of reading, to making the larger world a more welcoming and gracious place in more ways." -- Rick Simonson, Elliott Bay Book Company

"Seven fresh, surprising views on boundaries and borders in a collection that combines black humor, islamo-futurism, fantasy, and painful realities." -- M. Lynx Qualey, Arablit