Temple Folk

February 1, 2023

From a daughter revealing her hair in public when she suspects her father of infidelity to a mother reflecting on a near-death experience, Bilal's debut collection, Temple Folk, illuminates the lives of contemporary Black American Muslims in the Nation of Islam and Sunni Orthodox communities. Prepub Alert.

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Starred review from May 22, 2023
Bilal’s vivid debut collection portrays the dualities and tensions embedded in the lives of Black Muslims in the 1970s U.S. In “Blue,” a dark-skinned girl whose mother calls her “a child so black, she blue,” gains a new sense of self in Chicago, where a man addressing a crowd locks eyes with her while extolling the virtues of dark-skinned women in the view of the Nation of Islam: “the real thing... none of the stain of the ol’ master’s blood running in her veins... a taste of chocolate sweetness out of a dream.” In “New Mexico,” a Black undercover FBI agent grapples with sympathetic feelings toward the Nation of Islam while investigating its leader. A teen in “Who’s Down” suddenly discovers she’s lost her faith. A brother and sister in the epic “Due North” learn shocking secrets at their father’s funeral. Bilal’s finely drawn and unvarnished character portraits leave much space for readers to reflect on their own conflicting allegiances, identities, and beliefs. These singular stories offer great insight on a community underexplored in literature. Agent: Eric Simonoff, WME.

July 1, 2023
In Bilal's debut, Black American Muslims explore the intricacies of their faith and community. Taqwa is tasked with writing her father's eulogy--never an easy assignment, but made more difficult in Taqwa's case first by the fact that her father's ghost keeps appearing; second, an alternative narrative to her father's life has emerged; and finally, her father's commitment to Islam--he was an imam--may have wavered at the end of his life. The night before the interment, Taqwa sits up late, but in the morning, the eulogy--alas--has not written itself. This story, "Due North," is one of many meticulously probing stories in Bilal's debut collection. Each story describes the experiences of Black Muslims with varying levels of commitment to their faith, including at least one nonbeliever. It's a rare glimpse into a community that has received almost no literary attention, and Bilal is a skillful guide--sympathetic, nuanced, searching, but not uncritical. She describes one character as having "the look of someone who would always be limited by her own cunning, no hope of ever growing wise." In "Candy for Hanif," Sister Norah cares for her cognitively delayed son long after her husband has died. "In that moment," Bilal writes, "the entire city looked to her like a cage, placing limits on what she could know of the world." Bilal seems to particularly excel in the longer pieces, when she has room to explore. Still, despite the many, many attributes that make up this fine collection, there is a sameness to the structure and style of narration in many of the stories, especially those that are voiced in first person. The narrators tend to resemble each other. That's something for Bilal to watch out for in later books--clearly, there will be many more. A beautifully thorough, well-balanced collection.

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Starred review from July 1, 2023
Bilal's debut story collection explores the inner lives of Black Muslims as they wrestle with family, faith, sexuality, and race. Sister Memphis recalls a traumatic childhood filled with ridicule because of her dark skin (""so black, she blue"" according to her mother), which is only appreciated by a Muslim street preacher, thus beginning her path toward the Nation of Islam faithful. In "Candy for Hanif," Sister Norah finds herself moving away from temple duties and her sheltered life dedicated to caring for her disabled son. Qadirah grapples with race as she tries online dating, only to find that the man who fits her strict religious morals and with whom she is falling in love cannot appreciate her experience as a Black woman. These nuances and contradictions all come into sharp focus in the final story, "Due North," in which a brother and sister discover secrets about their recently deceased father, leading to other unspoken truths that don't fit with the picture they have of each other or their family. Bilal is an exceptional writer and there are few expendable words. This collection offers a deep and complicated portrait of Black Muslims in America.

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