is a writer, photographer, and activist. As a journalist she’s covered topics ranging from fashion trends and Muslim dating apps to the rise of Islamophobia in the US. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Advocate, and her photo project, “Just Me and Allah,” has been featured in Nylon, i-D, Vanity Fair Italia, Vice, and The Washington Post. She works with LGBTQ organizations internationally, raising awareness of issues that impact queer Muslims around the world. We Have Always Been Here is her first book.

is a Queer, Muslim, Neurodivergent Lebanese immigrant visual artist and burlesque performer. Born in Abu Dhabi and raised in Tripoli, Lebanon, El Safi immigrated with her family to Windsor, Ontario, Canada in 2002 in search of better stability from war and political corruption. El Safi completed her BFA Honours and minor in Women’s Studies at Western University. Currently based in Hamilton Ontario, El Safi’s BFA Specialization in Studio Art aided with establishing her ongoing exploration of storytelling through visual representation combined with dance. El Safi’s studio practice is combined with her background in Women’s Studies, which informed her foundation to understand herself within a Canadian context and the intersections of her identity in her ongoing practice.

Raised in a Khaleeji desert in a time before cell phones, intricate highway networks and satellite television, Laila Malik is a desi east African word worker in Adobigok, the traditional territory of the Wendat, Anishnaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Métis, and Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation. Her poetry, essays and short fiction have been published in Contemporary Verse 2, Canthius, The New Quarterly, The Feminist Wire, Sukoon (Arab arts and literature), Ricepaper magazine, FOLD Festival of Literary Diversity and QWERTY (forthcoming). Her work was longlisted for Event Magazine’s 2016 Creative-Nonfiction contest. She is working on her first poetry collection, an exploration of love, bereavement and inter-generational migration in a colonial world scored with secret messages from changing planetary geographies.