The Far Mosque (2005), the winner of Alice James Books’ New England/New York Award, is Kazim Ali’s first poetry collection. Written between 1999 and 2004, The Far Mosque is divided into 4 sections, the first comprising 11 poems, the second 8, the third 10, and the fourth 11. Writing as a queer Muslim poet, he arranges the collection as a journey in quest of faith, home, and identity. Ali was one of the few minority voices in the mainstream literature of the West at the time of the book’s publication. Its Muslim context is significant because it works as an alternative to Islamophobia and biases that proliferated in the Western media after 9/11. Because of this, belonging, identity, home, and faith form the core concerns of the collection.