The works of short fiction that make up "Banthology: Stories from Unwanted Nations" were solicited by Comma Press in the wake of President Donald Trump’s infamous January 2017 “Muslim ban.” They are by authors representing the seven Muslim-majority, mostly-Arabic-speaking countries included in the original executive order (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen). The stated goal of "Banthology" is both to increase understanding of these nations and their people among English-speaking audiences and to provide a creative space for the literary reactions of some of those impacted by the ban. The “Muslim ban” required an imagining of the countries it targeted as “other” than the United States, and yet all the same in fundamental ways. The stories in "Banthology" are counternarratives, offering alternative perspectives and histories. Few address Trump’s executive order directly. Instead, they meander through airports and cities, themes of exile and forced flight, the distant past and even parallel worlds. They create a map with no fixed points or borders. Though these narratives represent seven countries, they explicitly resist any suggestion that they are in some way representative. The authors are of different ages and come from a variety of backgrounds. Some reside in Europe or the United States. They and their short fiction combat the notion of the monolithic other suggested by the ban through the diversity of the perspectives and experiences they offer. Taken as a whole, "Banthology" also embodies the ways in which texts can move where physical bodies cannot. Seven authors from geographically distant countries, writing in three different languages, are put into conversation with each other in a collection spearheaded by a UK press in response to an executive order made by an American president. The project of this anthology is not canonization, but rather the creation of a reality of diversity and movement that challenges the homogeneity suggested by the Muslim ban, as well as the borders it attempts to keep closed.