“That’s how that moment felt to me: like I was above the clouds finally, and the sun was on my skin again,” Aaliyah Bilal, author of Temple Folk, says of learning her manuscript had been acquired. That debut short story collection, now a finalist for the National Book Awards, depicts Black Muslim lives in the 1970s as followers of the Nation of Islam and the generations that came after, looking back on that time in an exploration of faith and liberation. During an early afternoon Zoom call with sunlight dappled on her skin, Bilal smiles at the memory. The story of Temple Folk’s acquisition is one she’s told many times before, yet it has lost none of its luster. She had been in a “gloomy” place in her personal life and likened this moment to a plane cresting over a blanket of clouds. This is one of Bilal’s skills: bringing the light of our very human moments to the forefront, letting the audience—in this case, me—share in its glow.
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