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Temple University’s 2023-24 Essay Prompts

Common app personal essay.

The essay demonstrates your ability to write clearly and concisely on a selected topic and helps you distinguish yourself in your own voice. What do you want the readers of your application to know about you apart from courses, grades, and test scores? Choose the option that best helps you answer that question and write an essay of no more than 650 words, using the prompt to inspire and structure your response. Remember: 650 words is your limit, not your goal. Use the full range if you need it, but don‘t feel obligated to do so.

Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?

Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you?

Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.

Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you‘ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

What will first-time readers think of your college essay?

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Bulletin 2023-2024, english (eng).

Course information contained within the Bulletin is accurate at the time of publication in August 2023 but is subject to change. For the most up-to-date course information, please refer to the Course Catalog .

ENG 0701. Introduction to Academic Discourse. 4 Credit Hours.

Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.

ENG 0711. Introduction to Academic Discourse ESL. 4 Credit Hours.

ENG 0802. Analytical Reading and Writing. 4 Credit Hours.

Course Attributes: GW

ENG 0812. Analytical Reading and Writing: ESL. 4 Credit Hours.

ENG 0815. Language in Society. 3 Credit Hours.

Course Attributes: GB

ENG 0822. Shakespeare in the Movies. 3 Credit Hours.

Course Attributes: GA

ENG 0824. The Quest for Utopia. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 0826. Creative Acts. 4 Credit Hours.

ENG 0834. Representing Race. 3 Credit Hours.

Course Attributes: GD, SI

ENG 0837. Eating Cultures. 3 Credit Hours.

Course Attributes: GB, SI

ENG 0849. Dissent in America. 3 Credit Hours.

Course Attributes: GU, SI

ENG 0855. Why care about College: Higher Education in American Life. 3 Credit Hours.

Course Attributes: GU

ENG 0857. The Detective Novel. 3 Credit Hours.

Course Attributes: GG

ENG 0868. World Society in Literature & Film. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 0902. Honors Writing About Literature. 4 Credit Hours.

Cohort Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Cohorts: SCHONORS, UHONORS, UHONORSTR.

Course Attributes: GW, HO

ENG 0922. Honors Shakespeare in the Movies. 3 Credit Hours.

Course Attributes: GA, HO

ENG 0924. Honors: The Quest for Utopia. 3 Credit Hours.

Course Attributes: GB, HO

ENG 0926. Honors Creative Acts. 4 Credit Hours.

ENG 0934. Honors Representing Race. 3 Credit Hours.

Course Attributes: GD, HO, SI

ENG 0949. Honors Dissent in America. 3 Credit Hours.

Course Attributes: GU, HO, SI

ENG 0968. Honors World Society in Literature & Film. 3 Credit Hours.

Course Attributes: GG, HO

ENG 0973. Honors Women in Modern Bengali Film. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 0975. Honors Transnational Cinema. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 1009. Discovering English. 1 Credit Hour.

ENG 1801. Career Seminar. 1 Credit Hour.

ENG 2000. Special Topics. 3 Credit Hours.

Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.

ENG 2001. Interpreting Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2003. Creative Writing: Poetry. 3 Credit Hours.

Note: This course may be taken a maximum of two times for credit, and all attempts will be factored into a student's cumulative GPA.

Note: This course is not designated writing intensive.

Repeatability: This course may be repeated for a total of 6 credit.

ENG 2004. Creative Writing: Fiction. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2005. Creative Writing: Plays. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2006. Non-Fiction Writing. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2007. Writing for Business and Industry. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2008. Technical Writing. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2009. Writing the Research Essay. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2012. Literature and Criticism. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2013. Literature and Philosophy. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2014. Myth and Symbol. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2022. Beyond the Field: Sports and Storytelling. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2096. Introduction to English. 3 Credit Hours.

Course Attributes: WI

ENG 2110. Dark Academia: The Literature of College Life. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2111. The Short Story. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2112. Children's Literature and Folklore. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2113. Popular Fiction. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2114. Social Justice and Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

Course Attributes: SI

ENG 2115. Young Adult Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2116. Disability and Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2118. The End: Literature of the Apocalypse. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2160. Topics in Women's Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2206. The City in Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2211. Literature and Legend. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2221. Introduction to Shakespeare. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2222. Banned Books: The Politics of Reading. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2341. American Playwrights. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2401. African-American Literature I. 3 Credit Hours.

Course Attributes: RS

ENG 2402. African-American Literature II. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2501. Introduction to British Writing. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2502. Introduction to American Writing. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2503. Introduction to Global Writing. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2511. Modern Poetry. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2512. The Modern Novel. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2513. Modern Drama. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2521. Contemporary Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2601. Introduction to Postcolonial Literatures. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2696. Technical Writing. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2702. Film History I: 1890-1945. 3 Credit Hours.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- in ENG 2097.

ENG 2703. Film History II: 1946-Present. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2710. Special Topics in Film Studies I. 4 Credit Hours.

ENG 2711. Introduction to Film Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2712. International Film. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2713. Art of the Film. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2714. Writing for the Arts. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2720. Special Topics in Film Studies II. 4 Credit Hours.

ENG 2821. Introduction to Linguistics. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2822. Language and Race. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2831. Literacy and Society. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2832. Science Writing. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2833. Medical Writing. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2900. Honors Special Topics. 3 Credit Hours.

Course Attributes: HO

ENG 2901. Intermediate Honors: Developing Advanced Literacy in College. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 2903. Honors Creative Writing: Plays. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3001. History of Criticism. 3 Credit Hours.

Class Restrictions: May not be enrolled in one of the following Classes: Freshman 0 to 29 Credits.

ENG 3002. Contemporary Criticism. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3003. Intermediate Poetry Workshop. 3 Credit Hours.

Note: Prior to Fall 2023, this course was titled "Advanced Creative Writing: Poetry." This course may be taken a maximum of two times for credit, and all attempts will be factored into a student's cumulative GPA.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- in ENG 2003 .

ENG 3004. Intermediate Fiction Workshop. 3 Credit Hours.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- in ENG 2004 .

ENG 3005. Advanced Creative Writing: Plays. 3 Credit Hours.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- in ENG 2005 .

ENG 3009. Building Electronic Portfolios. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3010. Special Topics I. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3011. The History of Ancient Greek Theater. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3020. Special Topics II. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3082. Independent Study. 1 to 3 Credit Hour.

ENG 3085. Career Internship. 1 to 12 Credit Hour.

ENG 3096. Texts and Criticism. 3 Credit Hours.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- in ENG 2001 .

ENG 3097. Feminist Theory. 3 Credit Hours.

Course Attributes: SI, WI

ENG 3101. Themes and Genres in Women's Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3103. Advanced Poetry Workshop. 3 Credit Hours.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- in ENG 2003 and ENG 3003 .

ENG 3104. Advanced Fiction Workshop. 3 Credit Hours.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- in ENG 2004 and ENG 3004 .

ENG 3111. Italian Renaissance. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3112. Masterpieces of European Drama. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3211. Old English. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3212. Literature of the Medieval Period. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3213. Chaucer. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3221. Advanced Shakespeare I. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3222. Advanced Shakespeare II. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3223. Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3224. Renaissance Writers. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3225. Milton. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3231. Restoration and 18th Century Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3232. English Novel to 1832. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3241. English Romanticism. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3251. Victorian Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3252. Victorian Novel. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3261. Modern British Fiction. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3262. Irish Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3321. American Romanticism. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3322. American Realism and Naturalism. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3323. 19th Century American Fiction. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3331. Modern American Fiction. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3332. Contemporary American Fiction. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3341. American Literature and Society. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3401. Intermediate Writing: Non-Fiction. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3411. Studies in African-American Literary Genre. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3412. The Harlem Renaissance. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3413. African-American Literary Criticism. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3414. Blacks/Literature/Drama/Media. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3511. Modern British and American Poetry. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3512. Issues in Modern Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3513. Modern World Fiction. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3521. Contemporary Poetry. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3522. Contemporary World Fiction in English. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3523. Contemporary Drama. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3524. Advanced Contemporary Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3610. Topics in Postcolonial Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3611. Postcolonial Theory. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3710. Special Topics in Film. 4 Credit Hours.

ENG 3711. Intermediate Film. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3810. Topics in Professional Writing, Editing, and Publishing. 3 Credit Hours.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- in ( ENG 2001 , ENG 2003 , ENG 2004 , or ENG 2005 )

ENG 3811. Theories of Language and Literacy. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3812. Language Variation: Research in Language and Literacy. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3813. Writers at Work. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3814. Topics in Professional Writing. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3821. Linguistics and Grammar. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3822. Semantics. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3823. History of the English Language. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3824. Forensic Linguistics. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 3900. Honors Special Topics I. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 4096. Studies in Creative Writing. 3 Credit Hours.

Pre-requisites: Minimum grade of C- in ENG 2097, ( ENG 2003 , ENG 2004 , ENG 2005 , or ENG 2903 ), and ( ENG 3003 , ENG 3004 , or ENG 3005 )

ENG 4097. Studies in Criticism. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 4098. Studies in Modern British Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 4196. Studies in Language and Literacy. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 4197. Studies in Poetry. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 4198. Studies in Irish Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 4297. Studies in Drama. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 4298. Studies in Early American Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 4397. Studies in Medieval Language and Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 4398. Studies in 19th Century American Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 4497. Studies in Shakespeare. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 4498. Studies in Modern American Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 4597. Studies in Renaissance Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 4598. Studies in African-American Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 4697. Studies in Restoration and 18th Century Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 4698. Studies in World Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 4797. Studies in Romanticism. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 4798. Advanced Topics in Postcolonial Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 4897. Studies in the Victorian Age. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 4898. Studies in Film. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5001. Introduction to Graduate Study in English. 3 Credit Hours.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

ENG 5011. Early British Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5012. Early American Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5014. 16th and 17th Century British Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5016. 18th Century British Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5018. 19th Century British Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5021. 19th Century American Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5022. 20th and 21st Century British Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5024. 20th and 21st Century American Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5026. Anglophone Literatures. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5028. Literatures in Translation. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5031. Translation Study. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5032. Book History. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5100. Topics - Literary Genres. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5200. Topics - Literature and Culture. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5300. Topics - Cinema and Media Arts. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5301. Methods in Cinema and Media Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5401. Introduction to Digital Text Methods. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5500. Topics - Critical Theory. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5501. History of Critical Theory. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5502. Current Directions in Critical Theory. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5600. Special Topics in Creative Writing. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5601. Poetry Workshop. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5602. Fiction Workshop. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5603. Craft in Creative Writing. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5701. Composition Research Methods. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5702. Historical Studies in Language and Rhetoric. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5710. Topics - Literacy and Language. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5720. Topics - Rhetoric and Composition. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5811. Creative Nonfiction. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 5821. Literary Editing and Publishing. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 8101. Advanced Study - Early English Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 8102. Advanced Study - Early American Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 8104. Advanced Study - 16th and 17th Century British Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 8106. Advanced Study - 18th Century British Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 8108. Advanced Study - 19th Century British Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 8109. Advanced Study - 19th Century American Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 8202. Advanced Study - 20th and 21st Century British Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 8204. Advanced Study - 20th and 21st Century American Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 8205. Advanced Study - Anglophone Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 8301. Advanced Study in Translation. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 8302. Advanced Study in Book History. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 8304. Advanced Study in Genre. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 8402. Advanced Study in Cinema and Media. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 8501. Advanced Study in Critical Theory. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 8704. Advanced Study in Literacy and Language. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 8706. Advanced Study in Rhetoric and Composition. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 8900. Advanced Study in Literature and Culture. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 8904. TU/Penn Exchange Poetics. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 8985. Teaching in Higher Education: Writing. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 9082. Independent Study. 1 to 6 Credit Hour.

ENG 9083. Master's Manuscript Tutorial. 3 Credit Hours.

Field of Study Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Majors: English. Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate.

ENG 9089. Rome Seminar in Art and Culture. 6 Credit Hours.

ENG 9100. Seminar in Literary and Cultural Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 9200. Seminar in Cinema and Media Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 9300. Seminar in Critical Theory. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 9400. Seminar in Rhetoric and Composition. 3 Credit Hours.

ENG 9994. Preliminary Examination Preparation. 1 to 6 Credit Hour.

ENG 9995. Master's Project. 1 to 6 Credit Hour.

ENG 9996. Master's Essay. 1 to 6 Credit Hour.

ENG 9998. Pre-Dissertation Research. 1 to 6 Credit Hour.

ENG 9999. Dissertation Research. 1 to 6 Credit Hour.

Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Graduate. Student Attribute Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Student Attributes: Dissertation Writing Student.

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This Southern Delicacy Leaves Much to Chew On

In the South, many Black families have made and eaten chew bread — a dessert similar to a blondie — for generations.

By Christina Morales

In the early 1950s, Lucinda Moore founded a church ministry from her home in Blount’s Creek, N.C. The property anchored the charity work she became known for: nursing sick people back to health in her house, giving needy people the clothes that hung in her closet, leading religious ceremonies in the church she helped build in the backyard and cooking dozens of meals every Sunday with staples like fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, candied yams and a favorite of the congregation, chew bread.

Recipe: Chew Bread

Some of that community service stopped when she died in 2004 at 106 years old. But in 2019, Mrs. Moore’s granddaughter Hazel Moore took up her grandmother’s work and began to cook every Sunday again at St. Cindy’s Holiness Church, chew bread included.

“It goes like wildfire,” said Terrani Moore, Mrs. Moore’s great-granddaughter.

Mrs. Moore did not read or write, Terrani Moore said, so her family kept track of her cooking cues and measurements to write down the recipe for a household cookbook called “Through Thy Blessings.”

Chew bread is a treat similar to a dense blondie that can be found in Black Southern households and at church functions. Though its roots are murky, chew bread may have stemmed from sharecroppers, like Lucinda Moore, who learned to make a dessert with the leftover ingredients the landowners gave her to cook for her seven siblings. Many people added pecans that fell from nearby trees.

The dessert goes by other names, too, like cornbread cake, or chewies in South Carolina. (The treat has no relation to the candy Charleston Chew.) Chewies were made frequently by the Gullah Geechee people for birthday parties, Christmas and other celebrations, said Kardea Brown, the host of “ Delicious Miss Brown ” on the Food Network and the author of the cookbook “ The Way Home: A Celebration of Sea Islands Food and Family With Over 100 Recipes .”

She said the Gullah Geechee , descendants of West Africans in America’s southeastern coast, created the dessert with bare-bones pantry staples because their isolation made it challenging to access some ingredients.

Ms. Brown, of Charleston, S.C., grew up on her great-aunt’s version of chewies.

“She made them with nuts and lots and lots of butter,” Ms. Brown said. “It was so sweet and buttery that it kind of stuck to the roof of your mouth.”

David S. Shields, an English professor at the University of South Carolina and an author of “ Taste of the State: South Carolina’s Signature Foods, Recipes, & Their Stories ,” said chew bread was first mentioned in the Greensboro Daily News in 1962. He believes that people likely were making candy, like a pecan praline, and added flour to make it more nutritious and easier to handle.

Tracey Whitlock remembers her mother, Pattie King, buying tin canisters from the dollar store in Wilson, N.C., to fill with squares of chew bread for visiting family members. Mrs. King discovered the dish in a community cookbook purchased at a church fund-raiser.

“We hadn’t heard of chew bread,” said Ms. Whitlock, who now lives in Jacksonville, Fla. But her mother tried the recipe and made it her own by adding ingredients like raisins or coconut to it. “It became a family tradition.”

In the mid-1980s, Doretha Mitchell served chew bread among other desserts, cakes and pies at the neighborhood supermarket along Interstate 95 she owned with her husband.

Her chew bread was popular with tourists driving between New York and Florida, but it was also an everything bread for her family at home. There, she served the semisweet and dense chew bread to her son Ed Mitchell and grandson Ryan Mitchell as an after-school treat as well as to sop up the gravy from savory dishes like smothered turkey wings. And, naturally, she brought it to church functions at the Suggs Christian Temple Church in Wilson, N.C.

For a fancier Sunday dinner, Ms. Mitchell would mix a homemade caramel sauce into her chew bread batter. She made the caramel with the Sugar Daddy candies that were aging on her store’s shelves. It was her grandson Ryan’s favorite candy. The Mitchells added the recipe to their cookbook, “ Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque .”

That Sunday version, Ryan Mitchell said, “would be like heaven to me.”

Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram , Facebook , YouTube , TikTok and Pinterest . Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice .

Christina Morales is a reporter covering food for The Times. More about Christina Morales

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The Spinoff

The Sunday Essay about 6 hours ago

The sunday essay: my genderfluid god.

• Share Story

Some thoughts on my queer and Sikh identities, and how they mesh and collide.

The Sunday Essay  is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.

S undays were exciting, as they promised crispy bread pakora and chai over Punjabi chatter. If I was lucky, there would be jelabi, an orange spiral of sweet goodness prepped in the hot, crowded kitchen. I’d gulp it down in a single bite, sitting under the paintings of martyrs being scalped and buried alive. 

Afterwards, I’d run into the kitchen with sticky hands and an empty plate. I could feel the heat on the hairs of my arms from the giant puddle of oil in the wok; hear the sound of metal clanging against heads of garlic; see the kind face of a man pouring more water into the refill zone and turbans shining under the fluorescent lighting. The langar hall promised a warm meal for all. 

My nani (maternal grandmother in Punjabi), with her round sunglasses and white shawls, hoisted me onto her knees to tell me stories of Sikhi and the origins of langar. Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the first Sikh guru of ten, was given 21 rupees to start a business. He met weary and tired religious travellers on his way to the city. He offered to give them money, but they said receiving money from a well-off man felt degrading. So Guru Nanak brought food and cooked it, sitting on the floor with the religious folks and exchanging stories. This created the tradition of langar, where we all sit together on the floor to symbolise our equality in God’s eyes. 

So we sit on blue mats, our feet equally cold in the heatless room. My father spends more time in the langar hall than in the prayer room. This is where he chats with the men he met in small Onehunga flats when they were starving migrants. Everyone is welcome to langar; for this purpose, the langar hall and kitchen are always separate from the worship room. There is no need to thank a God you do not believe in to accept our kindness. 

T he most significant act of devotion as a Sikh is to take care of the world around us, because we believe we are simultaneously part of God as well as God’s creation. Through cooking meals, donating money, volunteering and teaching children or elderly people, Sikhs are worshipping God. This act is called seva. 

At age 12, I followed my nani’s loose pastel scarf into the gurdwara (place of worship) when I noticed a group of elderly women, heads covered in devotion with bright scarves, reciting the Punjabi alphabet. Their voices sounded tender yet powerful, an elder again becoming a child. Nani explained that she was the only educated girl out of her six sisters. Despite nani’s desire to attend university, she felt unsafe being the only woman to attend the local campus. 

At home, I would ask my father how my dadi ( paternal grandmother) would reply to his letters when it cost a dollar for every minute he called home. She would ask a village girl to read it out loud to her, sipping chai in her pale and sunny home, the words a blur of jumbled letters. How strange for my religion to create a new text for the benefit of lower-caste people and women, only to leave generations of women uneducated in the name of culture. I imagined my nani as a girl, curled up in her grandmother’s bed with a stomach full of fresh milk, hearing bedtime stories of Sikh liberation. A light switched off and a promise of a better world tomorrow.

Our current guru is Guru Granth Sahib, a book written in Gurmukhi. All these bright scarves, spent in devotion to guru, they could not see. I pray for them, as they are a part of me; their joy at reading is mine. 

Through people’s acts of seva, I learnt how to read Gurmukhi. We often discussed religious stories, and I became fascinated with the concept of gender in Sikhi. God does not have a gender, as they (God) existed before the manmade idea of gender. God is formless, transcendent. We dance with them, we are them, we are a part of their creation, and if we align ourselves right with the prayers and avoidance of maya (illusions of the world like drugs, beauty standards, wealth and competition with one another) we could join them in the centre of the universe. 

In Sikhi, the word for God is ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ ( pronounced wa-he-gu-roo) , translating to “ teacher of the air”. As we speak, we transmit knowledge; within this knowledge, God is present, guiding our hands gently. What is more genderfluid than the air itself? 

O n the other hand, my Sikh identity is at odds with my queerness. Sometimes, at parties, my shoe kicking into the dirt of West Auckland backyards, I’d make comments about God, and they would be met with dismissive laughter. Religion is a bit of a joke in queer communities, and after centuries of being at odds with one another, who can blame them? Religion and queerness mimic the patterns of an overdomineering mother, wishing to craft her child out of the clay from the lakeside, and a child with fast feet. Neither realise that they cannot exist without each other; in their moulding and destruction of one another, they create one another. 

Over the coffee table covered with Punjabi newsletters and biscuits, my nani laughed about a story of two women marrying. I often think of being a child, listening to my nana’s (maternal grandfather in Punjabi) prayer as the sun dips away. The gentle pull of his hands as he moves over the prayer book. The birds easing to sleep; the sweet scent of mothballs from my grandmother’s shawl. Queerness is a religion: a devotion to discovering oneself. Maybe it’s selfish to want more than one religion, to want a God and a girl to understand it too.

Since I was a child, sprinting through the hallways wearing a bandana and jeans instead of a salwar kameez with a dupatta, I knew I was different. My bisexuality often manifests as isolation from the right way of performing femininity. Men and women occupy different spaces in the temple, sitting opposite one another for cultural rather than religious reasons. In protest, I often followed my nana  to the men’s section; a long-haired girl wearing a loosely wrapped scarf with her boyish jumpers. 

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When I am in front of the guru, I remind myself that he knows who I am, as he has created me as much as I have created him. Gurnanak ( another way of saying Guru Nanak Dev Ji) often becomes an imaginary friend whenever I hear homophobic remarks in the gurdwara. I imagine his disbelief that we are still thinking about gender as a set of rules to follow – doesn’t this count as an illusion of the world? 

I often think of the twelve-year-old version of Gurnanak who refused to wear a religious string that only upper-caste boys were permitted to wear, his steely calmness when he explained, as a child, that he is not brought closer to God by pretending he is better than God’s other creations. 

While the challenges of Punjabi homophobia and transphobia exist, I have to remember that Sikhi is a religion created out of a warzone. I am resilient, both as a queer individual and as a Sikh. We transform the world, carving spaces of equality. In my home, there is always food for all, and gender is just an illusion we mess around with.