This day-long symposium will focus on producing positive social change through the empowerment that education, literature and the arts have to provide. It will convene some of the most brilliant writers and artists of our generation for a day of thought-provoking and inspiring dialogue. The conference will shed light on the importance of the Muslim protagonist in a post-9/11 America and offering the prominent Muslim and non-Muslim writers of this generation the opportunity to discuss their experiences within an emerging American-Muslim literary community and the literary community at large. These novelists, playwrights, filmmakers, journalists, and scholars will inspire the up-and-coming generation of American Muslims and other ethnic minorities to pursue writing as a means of expression, and to fight prejudice with the power of the Pen.