Date: December 28th 2009

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Dear Soft Skull Media subscribers,

I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season! Our Soft Skull Press author Michael Muhammad Knight—the renowned leading voice of American Muslim punk—coined the term “taqwacore” for his novel about a Muslim punk house in Buffalo, New York. Originally published by the author on photocopiers and spiral-bound by hand, The Taqwacores, has since inspired and provided the name for a real-life Muslim punk subculture and was released by Soft Skull Press in 2009.

The Taqwacores has been adapted into a feature film that will world premiere at Sundance 2010: http://bit.ly/7BkjKA. Knight is both the screenwriter and co-producer for the film and will attend the screenings at Sundance (Jan 21-31).

For those in New York City, Soft Skull Press is planning the big launch party for his latest book, Journey to the End of Islam (Dec 09), on January 6th, featuring a very special performance by The Kominas (http://www.myspace.com/thekominas), a major taqwacore punk band from Boston.

Muslim Punk Night at the Bowery
JOURNEY TO THE END OF ISLAM launch / The Kominas
Wednesday, January 6th from 10pm to close
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery
(Between Houston and Bleecker)
F train to 2nd Ave, 6 to Bleecker
212-614-0505
http://www.bowerypoetry.com/
Admission - $8

Please let me know if you’re interested in planning coverage on Knight and I can gladly send more information and mail you review copies. I will include more information on all of his 2009 books and Journey to the End Islam after this email. Please email me at carrie.dieringer@counterpointpress.com or call (510) 704-0230 ext 214. I look forward to hearing from you!

All my best,
Carrie Dieringer

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Soft Skull Press has published five books by Knight in 2009. As described above, his first novel, The Taqwacores (January), told the story of a fictitious scene of Islamic punk- rockers and inspired the real-life Muslim punk movement which now shares its name, and Osama Van Halen (July) is its fantastical and satirical follow-up. With his deeply personal memoir Impossible Man (April), chronicling his bizarre and traumatic boyhood and conversion to Islam, and Blue Eyed Devil (May), his American road odyssey, Knight explores through his own private experience the unique realities of being an American Muslim. We finish the year with Journey to the End of Islam (December) where Knight goes international.

In Journey to the End of Islam, where Knight goes international and visits holy sites in Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, and Ethiopia. His travels culminate at the holy city of Mecca, where he performs the hajj. This is the newest addition to Knight’s journey—whose work has led to him being hailed as both the Jack Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson of American Islam. This engaging travelogue documents his visits to holy sites in Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, and Ethiopia, and explores both the puritanical Islam promoted by Saudi globalization and the heretical strands of popular folk Islam: shrines, magic, music, and drugs. His travels culminate at Islam’s spiritual center, the holy city of Mecca, where he performs the hajj required of every Muslim.

Knight was the subject of the lead story in the National section of the New York Times on December 22, 2008 (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/us/23muslim.html) and featured on NPR’s Tell Me More on Dec 23, 09 (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121805397)

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