Waw Stories - Mariam Hakim
Waw Stories is an independent publisher of powerful tales from Muslim and Middle Eastern cultures. We are interested in profiling important stories, some that haven’t yet had the limelight they deserve and we do this through books, events and online story reading sessions.
Our approach to storytelling is child-centric and family friendly and we began our journey in 2018 with the aim of telling stories from Muslim cultures in a positive, uplifting and multi-layered way.
We are a UK publisher based in London. We like to work on stories that are worthwhile and it’s important for us to do this in a responsible way – because there’s always a bigger picture.
We published our first book An Ocean in One Drop in August 2019 and we have lots more in store, inshaAllah. We are all about access, creativity, heritage, embracing new tech and of course reading for fun!
Mariam Hakim is the Founder of and author behind Waw Stories. Mariam's writing has a particular focus on celebrating powerful stories from Muslim cultures - because finding relevant Muslim books for her own children became tricky at one point and she believes all children should be able to see their identities reflected in stories.
Mariam has an academic background in English Literature and Media, and in 2019 she decided to change career path to work in indie Publishing through Waw Stories. She wanted to create high quality, uplifting and modern children's books that speak to Muslim families and their identities in a relevant way, and which have universal themes accessible to all.
Before writing for children Mariam used to write articles that would challenge the UK Far-Right and promote inter-faith understanding. This was a form of activism aimed at tackling and dismantling Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism.
Aside from publishing Islamic and Muslim themed books, Mariam also runs the 'Hakawati' #RamadanStoryteller series each Ramadan, which is an annual 30-day read aloud of stories with Muslim themed content or by Muslim authors. This is to bring the Muslim book industry together in collaboration as a celebration of our heritage, to encourage book love and to help the spread of Ilm, knowledge.
