Gentle Visitations
LITERARY REFLECTIONS AND CONVERSATIONS
Dear Readers,
“It’s practically difficult to escape the pressures of modern life, including demanding deadlines, several commitments at home and work, and the constant need to manage time. On the other hand, the idyll of childhood never ceases to fascinate me since I feel we must retain the child within us—the “immortal sea” of creativity. Even though I am a full-time professor and researcher with little spare time for creative writing, I always answer the call of my creative self and write whenever I can. It is refreshing and liberating to overcome the numerous distractions of daily life that stand between my creative self and me. I believe it is never too late to be a poet or writer. The ‘sunny pleasure dome’, ‘caves of ice’, and everything else that is ‘larger than life’ is right there at the opening of the ‘magic casements’, inviting us all. We simply need to be mindful of the creative child—the artist within us. To reach for the stars, you must be creative.
Munazza Yaqoob
(Founder, The Executive Editor)
(Postdoc, North Carolina University Wilmington, USA)
(Associate Professor of English and Founding Director of the Critical Thinking Forum (CTF) at the International Islamic University in Islamabad, Dr Munazza Yaqoob holds a PhD in “Developing Creative Thinking: A Cognitive Approach to the Teaching of English Literature.” She formerly held the positions of Director of the Institute of Professional Development (IPD) and Chair of the English Department, IIUI).
OUR TEAM
Meet FARHAT
(PhD English, International Islamic University, Islamabad)
She loves literature and linguistics alike. She loves to create teaching learning material for young learners. When she is not occupied with her duties, she loves penetrating the depth and mystery of the human soul and its relation with the cosmos and the creator. Even in dismal times, she retains a never-failing principle of hope, faith, and love which she wants to share with the younger generation.
Meet SHABNAM
(Poet & Author)
Having spent more than two decades presenting the Evening News and hosting programs on State Television, she has now delved into the beautiful world of Art. As she is a poet and author as well, her favourite moments are spent merging poetry onto canvas and vice versa. To be able to translate a poem into a visual representation is her passion, and her palette of words, feelings and colours merge together to keep the essence of creativity alive.
Meet SOFIA
(Assistant Prof. (English), International Islamic University Islamabad)
She is an academic by choice and loves encouraging young creative minds to become independent, strong-willed and self-assured individuals. An avid reader, and art and literature lover, she is passionate about exploring indigenous cultures and traditions and strongly advocates social justice. Writing, she believes, can play a pivotal part in creating a more informed, just, bright and beautiful world.
Meet SONIA
(PhD English, Royal Holloway University of London, UK).
Although she is now seen as part of the serious academic world, in her other life, she is a nature-lover listening to rustling leaves and soaking up the ethereal sunlight that peeks through the corners. She is an aesthete who satiates herself with all things artistic, poetic, musical, and of course, literary and intellectual. She likes possibilities and imagining things better than they really are.
Meet IMAN
Iman Ali is, before all else, a poet. She writes poems, reads poems, memorizes poems so they are within her forever. It sometimes seems she survives solely on poems. In love with all forms of artistic expression, she spends her time reading verse and prose alike, painting with watercolors, watching contemplative films, and writing poetry. She believes that to make things is to be human. But of all the wonderful things humans make, she loves language the most. So, she writes for the love of language. It lets her both consume and create beauty, and to carry all the tenderness she has for the world.
Meet SHEHAR BANO
For nearly six years, Shehar Bano has brought literature to life as a lecturer at the University of Education, Lahore. A PhD scholar and dedicated researcher, she delves into Gothic fiction and Environmental Humanities by day—and paints her worlds by night. A lover of poetry, words, and the natural world, Shehar finds beauty in every brushstroke and every line of text.
Meet RIDA
Rida is an experimental writer, an ardent wanderer and a book geek. She floats in caffeine and words keep her spirits high. Rida loves to take her friends on aimless walks and later theorises on her peregrinations. She writes poems that are rooted in love and politics; she does not differentiate between the two. She also runs a bookclub and tries her best to extend her book friends with walks, coffee runs and book hauls. She also paints, mainly human portraits but she is very shy about them. Rida believes that looking at the mighty skies with affections in our hearts, and tomes in our hands, we can all prosper toward collective bliss.
submission guidelines
If you are interested, please send your writings for publication to