When I asked folks why they subscribed to this newsletter, this is what they said:

“I see you as an ally for the rage-filled people that have to remain civil and respectful in the face of injustice. I read your writing to realise it is okay to feel the rage I feel and express it.”

“I come for the quality writing, the education & to be engaged in the world outside my door.”

“To be educated and inspired.”

So, what might you get out of being a subscriber, and opening the email once a week (or more)?

• personal essays that tease out the nuances in contemporary topics (chatGPT and therapy, friendships across political divides, my relationship with the kitchen)

• stories about Sudan and being Sudanese that you won’t read elsewhere (the difference between narratives re Palestine and Sudan, the challenge of not being seen, the heartbreak of not being able to stop the war…)

• musings on writing and sustaining a career as a working writer (on becoming a screenwriter, how I feel about each of my books, a writers responsibility during times of crisis)

• reflections on activism, social change, justice (on being right vs being effective, curiosity as a useful tool, on solidarity versus symbolism)

Paid subscribers also get things like mid-week link roundups and cultural reviews.

So! Welcome, gentle reader. Dig into the archive, drop a comment, send me an email. I love hearing your thoughts, your challenges, your reflections. This newsletter is called Good Chat because honestly, that’s what I love to do. That’s how I figure things out, tease out what I believe, understand each other and the world. Through a good ol’ chat.

Looking forward to it, inshallah!

If you’re looking for more information, here’s what I wrote when I launched this Substack in Jan 2021:

Who am I? Well, what might be more useful to you is not who I am, but why I do what I do.

I’m interested in social justice, people, and power. I believe that systems of oppression should be interrogated, challenged and dismantled, and am constantly looking for how to do this to the best of my ability. I believe in Islam, and the ethics of transformative justice that I believe it espouses. I hold myself accountable to these standards, and believe that one day Allah will too. I write because I know not what else to do, the craft has been a constant in my life since I was before double-digit-years-old. I ran away from writing, from the truth it demanded of me, for many a year. I hid in Formula One, on oil rigs, on TV. Alas. One can only outrun what is written for them for so long.

So, here I am. Writing, in one form or another. Here, I give myself the space (for now) to write outside the bounds of commission, deadline, brief. I am curious to see how it’ll pan out, what it means to share one’s thoughts in long form again on one’s own terms, without second guessing every sentence, victim to hyper-vigilance wrought by trauma. Indeed, the fall will probably come again. But, I guess that’s the point of picking yourself back up, right?

You can find out more about me here: yassminam.com. In the meantime, if you enjoy what I write, or find something resonates, please tell a friend, and then tell me. It’s lonely out here…