"Love, InshAllah's" popularity is such that it has now entered its third printing. It has been featured on NPR and the BBC and in The New York Times and Washington Post.
The chapter titles reflect the diversity of the book's 25 Muslim-American contributors: "Cyberlove," "Love in the Time of Biohazards," "Love at Third Sight, "Sex by Any Other Name" and "Brain Meets Heart."
Co-editor and contributor Mattu confesses her Jane Austen-like mortification--and rush of sympathy for men--when she sweeps up breathlessly to "a gorgeous tall, dark stranger" at a bar in Boston. For years, she had made fun of men "for approaching me with inane pickup lines." Now she had just done the same. "Why couldn't I have just stopped at hello?"
Mattu is a writer, photographer and human rights consultant who resides in San Francisco. Her articles have appeared in The Huffington Post, the International Museum of Women and the award-winning blog, "Rickshaw Diaries."
Maznavi, born in Pittsburgh, is a writer, civil rights attorney and Fulbright Scholar who has worked with migrant workers in Sri Lanka. She was reared and lives in Los Angeles. She is at work on a screenplay and several short stories.
Mattu and Masnavi met six years ago in San Francisco and solicited love stories nationwide for their book. They received more than 200 submissions.
The April 3 Fishbowl reading is co-sponsored by the Humboldt State Library, the HSU MultiCultural Center and the university's Department of Critical Race, Gender and Sexuality Studies. It is free and open to the public. Disability accommodations can be arranged at 707/826-5656.