rockslinga

Movin' On...

2008-10-19T22:30:00.005-04:00

It's been fun here on rockslinga, but I'm movin' on out to a more grown-up spot:

randajarrar.com

Update your bookmarks, y'all!

First Middle East Review of A Map of Home

2008-10-17T00:35:00.000-04:00

Andrea Walker of the New Yorker reviews A Map of Home in the UAE's The National. It's a really thorough (spoilers!) and intelligent review- I loved it. Read it here.

Mama & Baba & A Map of Home

2008-10-16T21:50:00.002-04:00

When I was writing the novel, I never stopped to wonder what my parents would think of it; the very idea of them reading it would have stopped me in my tracks. But just before it came out, I spent at least three therapy sessions fretting about them reading it. I pretended to send them copies via FedEx; they called every few days and left messages saying, "Where is ze Fed Ex? We have not received ze books!" When I saw them a couple of weekends ago, I'd run out of excuses, and handed them their inscribed copies with pride- the only way I thought I could "give it up."

They have both now read my novel. My mother loved it; she said she enjoyed all the crazy parts, and that it was "like life." I worried that she would think the mom character was too feisty, but the only concern she had was that there was a typo of the transliteration of the Arabic word for tablecloth.

My father finished it on an airplane, and loved it as well, though he called my mother all worked up about the sex scenes. Go figure. I thought he'd be upset about the portrayal of the father as an abusive stubborn ass, but instead, he was worried about what my son will think of all the sex when he reads the book in a few years.

I am relieved, and also really happy to have their support and blessing, because even though I don't need it, I can't pretend that I don't want it.

Rereading The Stranger

2008-10-15T09:29:00.005-04:00

I'm rereading the short novel after a dear friend told me that she heard a professor call Camus an Arab. I remember being really saddened by it as a teen, and so I'm tickled by my current reaction to it (intrigue). Are there any books you once loved/hated that you're now rereading, and what do you think of them?

Here's a list of books I once loved that I'd be curious to re-read:

Bastard Out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison
The Metamorphosis, Kafka
The Red Badge of Courage & Maggie: Girl of the Streets, Stephen Crane
The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne
Nervous Conditions, Tsitsi Dangarembga
Woman at Point Zero, Nawal el-Saadawi (already know I'd hate this one now)
The Choker and the Bracelet, Yehia Taher Abdallah

Homoerotic Egyptian Film Moment Sunday!!!

2008-10-12T22:48:00.001-04:00

Le Clézio defends American literarture

2008-10-09T23:29:00.003-04:00

From Newsweek:

In an impromptu press conference today at the headquarters of Gallimard, the most prestigious publishing house in 20th Century French literature, housed in a tiny enclave of left bank Paris, the author quoted numerous American contemporaries he esteems—chief among them Philip Roth. "American literature is atypical – unlike French literature it gives rise to all sorts of states, styles and authors who are distinct."

I'm glad. I thought Engdhal's comments were impetuous and full of hot air.

Link via Russell

Reminder: Reading tonight at 6 at MOCAD

2008-10-09T15:25:00.002-04:00

I'm reading at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit at 6 tonight with Michael Kimball and Lynn Crawford. Hope to see you there!

Mulokhiyya Body Wash

2008-10-09T15:03:00.005-04:00

I've always loved the smell of Mr. Rockslinga's body wash, but I never knew why the scent seemed so familiar. Reading the contents a few minutes ago, I laughed out loud when I saw the words "Mallow flower." Turns out, the body wash uses the main ingredient of my favorite, leafy Egyptian dish.

Fucking hysterical.

Dzanc Books Write-A-Thon

2008-10-07T12:13:00.003-04:00

Please consider participating in Dzanc Book's Write-A-Thon, the details of which can be found here. It's a noble cause! Dzanc Books is a non-profit which publishes awesome books, & works nationally in "set communities to provide writing workshops and year round programs for students and adults alike."

Some info:

The idea behind the write-a-thon will be similar to bowl-a-thons, or walk-a-thons, or, well you get the picture - other a-thons that you've probably supported or participated in during your lifetime, only with writing being the catalyst to the raising of funds. For one day, people will volunteer to write to help raise money, and they will ask people to fill out a donation sheet to support their efforts.

[Saturday, November 15, 2008] will be the date that those helping out Dzanc Books by raising money will be writing. Again I'm asking that you writers out there please consider being one of those that help us raise money that day. If you are interested, please email us at info@dzancbooks.org.

A Map of Home in Taiwan!

2008-10-06T19:15:00.003-04:00

My novel just found a home at Locus, a prestigious Taiwanese publishing house. I'm really excited!

A Map of Home in Entertainment Weekly

2008-10-02T13:20:00.002-04:00

It gets an A-. Check it out here. Very exciting!

Egyptian "Free" Speech, and Women Speaking Freely

2008-09-30T09:24:00.002-04:00

Newspaper editor Ibrahim Issa has been sent to the slammer for publishing "rumors" that President Mubarak is sick. So much for free press in Egypt.

And

Suheir Hammad and Gloria Steinem discuss guarding their nest, booty calls, and office politics in New York Magazine.

A Map of Home in the Christian Science Monitor

2008-09-25T10:11:00.002-04:00

The novel receives a really nice review today in the CSM. Here's the first paragraph:

Home is where the heart is. There’s no place like home. Home sweet home. Randa Jarrar takes all the sappy, beloved clichés about “where you hang your hat” and blows them to smithereens in her energizing, caustically comic debut novel, A Map of Home.

Check it out!

Garlic Goodness

2008-09-24T20:50:00.003-04:00

When I first moved to Michigan, I discovered a rich garlic dipping cream at a catered event, at which we were served Arabic food. I'd never seen, heard of, or tasted the cream before, so I did a little investigation and found out they sold it at Ali Baba's.

Forward a couple of years, and I've been going to Ali Baba's twice a month to shell out $1.36 for the sauce (sometimes charging it to my debit card, much to the chagrin of the cashier dude).

Last night, I finally asked the guy what the origin of the sauce was.

"Somewhere."
"Yeah, but where?"
"Um, let me ask this guy." Yells to guy in the kitchen: "Where's the sauce from?"
"The Middle East."
"Where in the Middle East?" I said.
"The whole Middle East."
"No, I've never heard of it before."
Blank stare.
"I grew up there."
"Where?"
"Kuwait and Egypt, and a little in Palestine."
"Egypt is not in the Middle East."
"Of course it is."
"No. The Middle East is Lebanon and Syria."
"And a few other places."
"I can't hear you." (He gets out of the kitchen and comes to the counter.)
"Where did the sauce originate?"
"With me, honey. I make the sauce. I'm the one who makes it."
"What's in it?"
"Garlic, lemon, salt."
"And oil."
"Yeah."
"What kind of oil?"
"Olive."
"What else? It tastes heavy."
"Corn oil. It makes it taste better."
"Right. Thanks!"
"Egypt isn't the Middle East."
"Okay. Bye."

I went home and enjoyed the sauce with Mr. Rockslinga and Mini Rockslinga. We are still licking our chops. Also: we know where the Middle East starts and ends.

2008-09-22T00:09:00.005-04:00

The California leg of the tour was fabulous!
I got to see lots of old friends and meet email pals I'd never met in real life.
& It was so much fun to read to new faces. Yay!

Bewteen The Lines Interview

2008-09-19T08:14:00.002-04:00

I recently did a radio interview with Valerie Jackson for the Atlanta NPR radio show, Between the Lines. You can listen to it here.

Califor-mya-mya

2008-09-16T20:09:00.003-04:00

I'm leaving for three book tour stops in CA. I'm excited to see Make/Shift Magazine friends, blog BFFs, and old friends. If you're around, I hope you'll come! Details:

LA
September 17
Skylight Books
1818 N. Vermont Avenue
7:30 PM

SONOMA
September 18
Readers' Books
130 E. Napa Street
7:30 PM

SAN FRANCISCO
September 19
Books Inc. in Opera Plaza
601 Van Ness, SF
7PM

A Deuce Reading

2008-09-15T12:17:00.002-04:00

I'm reading in An Arbor in less than seven hours. At the Shaman Drum Book Store. If you're a Michigan reader, please come!
UPDATE: That was possibly the best reading ever. I think the presence of Mr. Rockslinga and Mini-Rockslinga made it so rockin', as well as the cheers and the support of all my Michigan peeps. 'Twas a packed house. Loved it!

Austin

2008-09-15T11:50:00.011-04:00

On my way out to the reading, I found a slip of paper slid under my hotel room door warning me about Ike. Ike was possibly coming to town, and I was possibly going to come home to a hotel without power.

The reading was spectacular. Almost all my Austin friends came, and writer friends like Michalle Gould, Karen Olsson, and Jim Lewis, showed up as well. I read two sections and signed books while Emily, a whip-smart BookPeople employee, serenaded me with the things she loved most about the book. It felt fabulous.

Later, I drank frozen mojitos on a roof-top bar by the bookstore. I felt like I was in Alexandria: the heat and the outdoor couch ambience. Even later, I just felt drunk. Note the blurry drunken camera lens.

The next day, I gorged on migas and chicken friend steak and went for a baptismal dip in Barton Springs. I saw several Ike evacuees, but they were swimming and eating migas, too. I also spotted a pair of topless, redhead twins. Only in Austin...

I ended the night with a quintessential Austin activity: watching a documentary on the side of a garage. We saw a "Ho Bus" on the corner and posed in front, hos that we are, and were informed by a local that the Ho Bus was on sale for $1,400. We're considering buying it.

I'll be back in TX for the Texas Book Festival, which I'm really looking forward to. Mr. Rockslinga will finally be introduced to Austin and to all my friends.

Check out a list of Bookfest authors here.

Homecoming

2008-09-10T12:32:00.000-04:00

I'll be reading at BookPeople tomorrow, Thursday, at 7PM- I can't wait to see all my Austin peeps! I wrote the novel in TX, in and around Austin, and this will be a homecoming of sorts. I can't wait. Also, tacos. Tacos and chicken friend steak. Mmmm.

Another review

2008-09-10T12:06:00.003-04:00

This one from BookBrowse:

Coming-of-age themes are common, but the intelligent narration provides more than enough interest to sustain the momentum. Rare is the book that makes one stay up to finish it; this is one of them, simultaneously circling in its family dramas and spiraling outwards in its connections to history and place. Adult and teen readers alike would enjoy Nidali's honest portrayal. She's the Muslim equivalent of J.D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield, tender, caustic and wise in all the right moments.

There's also an interview on the site for your pleasure...

Short Story Love

2008-09-08T11:03:00.002-04:00

Just realized that yesterday's NYT Book Review was all about short story collections-- Annie Proulx's, Sana Krasikov's, Anne Enright's, and Claire Keegan's. Very exciting...

Readings

2008-09-07T23:32:00.009-04:00

...were so fun! I'd never been to Boston; it was great to meet Smoki Bacon and do an interview for the Literati Scene...

Followed by a walk down Newberry...

Ending at the Public Library, where I wrote...

and read in the courtyard...

Then stood outside, where I found out from my publicist that my book got 4 stars and a review in this week's issue of People Magazine...

Later that evening, I ended up at Harvard Square Bookstore, where I read...

I forgot my camera Saturday night, which was probably a good thing, because it rained like a motha and I walked around the Lower East Side barefoot to avoid Soggy Shoe Syndrome. My friend and superstar agent accompanied me to Bluestockings. It was an amazing turn-out: all the Other Press peeps came, as did my sister and brother, my college BFF, my Norton Island friends, some long-time readers, plus Richard Grayson, Sean Carman, and Maud Newton.

I had such a great time listening to the rain fall outside and my friends laugh inside.

I feel so blessed.

Reading, Bluestockings, Saturday at 7

2008-09-05T23:35:00.002-04:00

If you're in NYC: please brave the storm tomorrow and come see me read at Bluestockings on Allen Street. I'll start at 7. Old friends and family will be there; I'm so excited to see them and to meet all the wonderfully talented Other Press people. And I'd love to finally meet all my New York area readers, so come!

Hakawati Review

2008-09-05T11:35:00.000-04:00

My review of Rabih Alameddine's enchanting novel, The Hakawati, appears in this month's issue of Words Without Borders. A short excerpt of the review here:

More than three quarters of the way into the novel, Alameddine writes, “The best stories always begin with the appearance of a woman.” He follows his own advice, opening his novel centuries in the past with Fatima, the Alexandrian. In order to help her emir produce a son, Fatima offers to travel back to Egypt to visit a healer. When the emir asks why the healer can’t come to him, Fatima says healers never leave home, because home is the source of their magic. And thus the novel launches its first character on an intricate, sometimes deadly, and always absorbing adventure, and the rest of the cast follows Fatima’s example. First to follow is Osama al-Kharrat, the narrator of the book, who has come back to Lebanon after a long self-imposed exile in L.A. to stand vigil at his father’s hospital bedside. Osama feels foreign to himself in Lebanon. “I was a tourist in a bizarre land,” he says, “I was home.” In the first three pages of his novel, Alameddine mentions the magic, foreignness, and pull of home—and the idea of belonging. Exile becomes a central theme for the rest of the book.

Enjoy the entire review here, and better yet, buy the book.

Also in the issue, "international writers contemplate the reversals of various fortunes," with stories from Sarajevo, Sao Paulo, and more.

Harvard Bookstore, Friday, 7

2008-09-04T11:32:00.002-04:00

I'm reading with Padma Viswanathan, author of The Toss of a Lemon, tomorrow night at the Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge. It's an event sponsored by the Center for New Words. I hope you'll check us out, or forward the info to your Boston friends!

It's that magical day...

2008-09-02T11:03:00.001-04:00

My son started middle school today. I taught my first class of the semester. And...the novel is officially out. I saw stacks of it at Shaman Drum and Borders- such a great feeling. I'm so excited!

The Decatur Book Fest

2008-09-02T10:56:00.006-04:00

...was so cool! Some highlights:

Seeing Amiri Baraka read and talk to a packed house at the Decatur Library. He read us some "Lowcoos" (African-American Haikus) and a short story involving a magical clothing laser gun.

Walking by the blue and white "Jewish believers in Jesus" booth. They were giving out high-energy bible quizzes.

Hearing ZZ Packer tell me she won something by getting my name right on Maud's ridiculously hard Southern Lit Quiz

Drinking real sweet-tea.

Seeing Kudzu.

Going to an author party in the Old Courthouse.

Riding MARTA (Moving Asses Rapidly Through Atlanta).

Seeing a couple of long-time readers of my work in person at the panel.

I miss the South!

Event: Saturday, 10 AM, Decatur Book Festival

2008-08-28T11:21:00.002-04:00

I'll be attending the Decatur Book Festival this weekend, which will host writers like ZZ Packer, C. Michael Curtis, Billy Collins, Amiri Baraka, Jack Pendarvis, Natasha Tretheway, and Hadjii, with whom I'll be doing a panel on Saturday. I hope you'll attend, or spread the word to your Atlanta friends!

Details: Saturday, 10:00-10:45, Conference Center Auditorium, 130 Clairmont Ave, Decatur, GA 30030

A Map of Home will be out in one week!

2008-08-26T16:45:00.007-04:00

I think one of my favorite quotes, and I’ll paraphrase, is from Toni Morrison, who said she wrote The Bluest Eye because it was the book she’d been looking to read but never found. This really resonates with me because for years, I ran around college libraries looking for A Map of Home. I became enamored with Arab and African-American and Latina fiction because it approximated my experience, but I was hungry for a representation of my own identity, not just as an Arab, a lapsed Muslim, or an immigrant, but as someone who grew up in a house of ex-artists. I hadn’t seen anything that dealt with that topic that I could relate to.

I started writing sketches in 2001 and Nidali, the narrator, came to me very strongly; she’s funny, independent, fierce and profane. I showed some excerpts to Leslie Marmon Silko, who liked what she saw. She had once been a single mom writer, so she was very generous and gave me a private, two-year grant so I could write full-time. My son and I moved into a trailer in a tiny town in Central Texas, where I enrolled him at the local pre-K program and wrote all day.

One of my favorite reactions to the book came from an elderly woman who’d endowed a prize in her late son’s name, and I won the prize, and my mother and I went to the reception for it, and the woman, who was in her 80s, told me that the book helped her rethink her ideas about immigration and Arabs and Muslims, and then she went up to my mother and said, “I’m sorry dear. Don’t take the book personally.” So I had to comfort my mother and tell the woman that the book is fiction, even though, yes-- it is based on my own history and geographical background.

Back to teaching

2008-08-25T16:09:00.004-04:00

I just visited my new office at the University of Michigan and put the final touches on my course-pack. I'll be teaching college writing, and my students will be reading essays by Twain, George Saunders, Leslie Silko, Tim O'Brien, Edward Said, Grace Paley, David Foster Wallace, Christopher Hitchens, and Alice Walker. I know, most of these writers are novelists, but I find their essays brilliant.

One of the things I love about teaching is sharing great, persuasive, creative prose with young'uns. Plus...it's an election year, and many of the students will be voting for the first time, and I'm really stoked to give them tons of great arguments to study.

On the pulling of The Jewel of Medina

2008-08-21T00:02:00.008-04:00

When I first heard about The Jewel of Medina, I thought of all the non-fiction accounts we already have about Aisha's life: the story about her swinging when Muhammed first meets her; the way her mom called her in and told her she was to be married; how years later she "lost a necklace" and wandered in the desert with a hottie for hours, pissing Muhammed off. I read books like this when I was getting my MA in Middle Eastern Studies. Do we really need another Aisha book?

A few weeks ago, no one was talking about this book. Then, the publisher pulled it for controversy it hadn't even caused yet. Then, writers as big as Rushdie objected. In the future, the publisher would recant and actually release it. And gee, what a crate-ful of books they would sell every hour. If this was the novel's publicity strategy, it was genius!

I found out today that Asra Nomani deemed the book controversial...after consulting with Denise Spellberg at UT. Denise was one of my professors when I was at UT. She was the one who turned me onto all those Aisha books. And she was really cool: I took an independent study course with her when she found out I was a creative writer trapped in an academic program, and all she ever assigned me was the duty to meet her for coffee once a month and write short stories.

Do I think The Jewel of Medina should be published? Yes. Will I read it? Absolutely not. And ah, the sweetness of living in a culture that allows the freedom to publish such a book and the freedom not to read it.

Limbless (Thankfully Not Literally)

2008-08-20T14:23:00.001-04:00

My iBook has decided to crap out on me for 7th or 8th time. It's ready to be retired. Currently it's in the Mac Hospital, and I feel limbless. How to survive without my files, my calendar, and all my bookmarks? Of course, I am also hit with a strong desire to write, and nothing to write on. I know, I know, paper.

How we commemorate the dead

2008-08-18T09:19:00.002-04:00

"It happened with Naguib Mahfouz too, Egyptian Nobel prize winner. He was celebrated after his death much more than during his lifetime," says Egyptian film-maker Hala Galal of the Egyptian media's crazy lovin' of Youssef Chahine's films... now that he's dead.

Meanwhile, Darwish's funeral was packed, but so were all his readings and events. In Darwish's case, the people backed him and his work.

I'm fascinated with the different ways the two cultures which share a border are commemorating their greatest artists. In Egypt, the tyrranical government is paying tribute to someone who hated it. In Palestine, the people themselves are pouring out, albeit with the PA's approval.

And the paperback rights to A Map of Home go to...

2008-08-13T18:16:00.002-04:00

I'm thrilled!!! More details when I have them...

On Darwish's Death

2008-08-11T11:59:00.002-04:00

Most people say they have no words for Mahmoud Darwish's death, and I, too, am finding myself speechless and heartbroken. On Saturday afternoon, I was reading out loud from his poem, "The Subsistence of Birds," at a wedding in the middle of a field. I read these words in Arabic: "You were given to me as mother, father, friend/and brother for the road, and no bird bears more that it can." Those, his words, seem to me the perfect words now. Darwish's poetry has been in my life since I was a child, and I mourn him as I would a parent.

Allah yerhamu. May he rest in peace.

Wisconsin Weddin'

2008-08-06T12:21:00.002-04:00

I'm off to Wisconsin to officiate my good friend Elka's wedding. Elka and I met in TX eight years ago, and I've seen her through some gnarly relationshits. Excited she found a keeper. I'll be back next week.

White House Dreams

2008-08-05T10:27:00.004-04:00

I had a dream that someone told me writers and artists could sometimes couch-surf at the White House. This was part of an unofficial artists' residency, and writers like Miranda July and Eudora Welty had both done it. So, I went. It was surprisingly easy to find a cozy little room with a great desk. I ordered food when I got hungry and wrote non-stop. When I got bored of the room, I went for short walks. The house itself was packed worse than the London Book Fair, with people who had terrible fashion sense, so I left through some French doors and strolled around the property. I took a wrong turn and ended up in the parking lot, where W. was parking his hog. He was saying, "He thinks he can already take my parking spot, the bastard." I woke up when I saw Obama's scooter parked against a pole.

"I hope Christians and Muslims will leave the cinema and embrace and kiss one another."

2008-08-04T17:47:00.009-04:00

I can't wait to see Hassan & Morqos, a new Egyptian film about a Christian Copt and a Muslim who switch identities and live under-cover in the same building.

I love this kind of stuff. I think serious issues are best tackled via humor.

Plus, Adel Imam and Omar Sharif are dreamy...

Photo courtesy AFP

UPDATE: An article in the NYT about recent Sectarian clashes in Egypt. One Egyptian writer calls what's happening "open season" on Christians.

2008-07-31T14:07:00.003-04:00

There's an interesting article here about Israeli Palestinians. Issues discussed include the Israeli anthem, the absence of Arabic poetry on school curriculum, the dissonance within Israel, and cute couples who meet in chat rooms...

A couple more reviews

2008-07-29T14:18:00.008-04:00

A Map of Home was recently reviewed in Booklist and Alef Magazine. A short excerpt from the Booklist review:

Ah, eccentric families. In Jarrar’s first novel, the lovable Ammars are talkative, argumentative, and so alive they practically burst off the page. ... Jarrar is sophisticated and deft, and her impressive debut is especially intriguing considering her clever use of recent Middle East history

And a snippet from Alef:

[A Map of Home] sparkles with humour and intelligence. Nidali tenderly describes her rollicking family life, recounted with both a wicked sense of humour and seriousness. Nidali’s parents are larger-than-life characters. ...This brilliant book is not one to overlook.

And you can have your very own copy in a month.

Youssef Chahine, R.I.P.

2008-07-27T23:06:00.004-04:00

Youssef Chahine was one of my favorite filmmakers. His death means I won't ever be able to see a new Chahine movie again, which depresses the hell out of me. Chahine was a versatile filmmaker; an artist and a writer whose films dipped into several genres and historical time periods, and whose films were all preoccupied with self, memory, and autonomy.

Chahine made all sorts of movies. He made autobiographical movies about growing up in Alexandria (The Alexandria trilogy). He made historical films (Saladin, Destiny, and others). He made musicals; he made post-modern films; he made films about male Jewish ballerinas; he made films about schizophrenics obsessed with balloons and women. He made great films.

His life was an example for Arab artists everywhere.

He will be missed.

Happy Weekend

2008-07-25T11:53:00.006-04:00

It's been a great week of reading, resettling, dancing, and watching Obama's hotness in Europe.

See you next week, y'all.

Travels with my Aunt Rocks!

2008-07-25T11:45:00.004-04:00

I'm re-reading Graham Greene's silly romp-novel, Travels with my Aunt; it's a great Summer read, and the book he had most fun writing. Every single moment is clever, witty, and ballsy. And the Aunt of the title and the travels is one of the strongest, funniest, most inspiring female characters I've ever encountered. Definitely check it out.

"At the end of the day this siege will be a footnote.”

2008-07-24T19:19:00.002-04:00

Gaza is opening a new, archaeological museum!

2008-07-16T14:19:00.004-04:00

I'm wrapping up my residency here in Maine, where over the last few weeks, I've hiked through blueberry patches, swum in the freezing Atlantic, eaten fresh lobster, washed my clothes in a washtub, hung it up by my cabin on a twine clothesline, and finished revising my story collection.

While here, I've met amazing people, been inspired, and gotten lots of good news. I'll always remember it.

I've added a couple of exciting events to my calendar. I've been invited to the Texas Book Fest (Yee haw!) and Wordstock (Yipee!).

Now off to hike and sit on some rocks and try to spy some seals...

Kafka papers will be released, possibly covered in dog pee

2008-07-09T22:58:00.002-04:00

According to the BBC:

They've been kept in Tel Aviv these past 40 years by Brod's secretary, Esther Hoffe, who refused all requests to examine them. ...The authorities here have warned that the damp in her flat and the hoards of dogs and cats she kept may have damaged or even destroyed the papers.

Kirkus gives A Map of Home a starred review

2008-07-09T20:47:00.004-04:00

In this month's issue of Kirkus, A Map of Home feels the love. Here's the review in its entirety:

A first-time novelist offers a fictional take on her own complex heritage. Nidali’s Baba is Palestinian. Her Mama is half-Greek and half-Egyptian. In addition to this mixed-up background, Nidali has an American passport and a precociously peripatetic personal history. Born in Boston, Nidali grows up in Kuwait, but her family flees to Egypt during the 1990 Iraqi invasion. By the time she lands in Texas, Nidali has become a seasoned traveler, and, wherever she goes, she carries with her a keen awareness of her inescapable difference. Nidali’s story is shaped by the harsh realities of ethnic division, political uncertainty and war, but it is also, essentially, a typical coming-of-age story. Jarrar is a funny, incisive writer, and she’s positively heroic in her refusal to employ easy sentimentality or cheap pathos. Nidali is a misfit living through calamitous times, but Jarrar understands that all adolescents feel like misfits living through calamitous times. The political is always personal for Nidali. For her, bombs dropping on Kuwait mean that nobody remembers her 13th birthday. As her family drives across Iraq on their way to Egypt, she writes a letter to Saddam Hussein complaining that his invasion has separated her from her boyfriend. And, ultimately, international crises have less impact on Nidali’s life than ongoing battles between her and her Baba on subjects like curfew and college.
A coming-of-age story that’s both singular and universal—an outstanding debut.

I'm thrilled.

2008-07-07T17:23:00.000-04:00

I’m at a writers’ residency in Maine, writing and revising and enjoying the company of some of the coolest writers and visual artists ever. I’m becoming a little addicted to the “code” we speak in; I asked one of the residents what he thought someone off the street would say if they overheard us. He said, they’d tell us to get a job.

But the job of creating is such a fun one, even when it doesn’t come easy. I love the days I have huge breakthroughs, and the days I do nothing but stare at the same few sentences, sighing and moaning.

It’s damn pretty here.

A Map of Home gets starred review in Publishers Weekly

2008-07-01T23:11:00.001-04:00

Check it out. It's about the dozenth book down...

Summer

2008-06-23T13:32:00.002-04:00

I've got some fun plans for the following weeks. In July, I'll be spending some time at a Writer's Paradise/Residency. In August, I'm officiating a good friend's wedding. And at the end of August, I kick off my book tour at the Decatur Book Fest. Click here or on the events button on the right to see if I'll be reading in your town. I'm really excited.

Zadie Smith lecture worth every single penny of the $8 spent on The Believer

2008-06-17T22:08:00.007-04:00

There are some things writers don't say out loud; at least I've almost never heard them said. I'm at the point right now where I'm spending a couple of hours a day looking (squinting) at a PDF of my novel, a sheer sense of exhaustion setting in. How many times, I wonder, have I read this book? This book I began when I was 23? 100 times? 150? Reading Zadie Smith's lecture made me laugh and gave me some hope. Here are some memorable quotes:

"Craft is too grand and foreign a word to describe what gets done most days in your pajamas."

"It's such a confidence trick, writing a novel. The main person you have to trick into confidence is yourself"

"[Page] proofs are the wasteland where the dream of your novel dies and cold reality asserts itself."

Smith obsesses about the first 20 pages of a book, which in the case of On Beauty took 2 years. Then she finished in 5 months. "Once I get the tone, everything follows. You hear interior decorators say the same about a shade of paint."

And stellar advice:

"When you finish your novel, if money is not a desperate priority...put it in a drawer. For as long as you can manage. A year or more is ideal-- but even three months will do. ... The secret to editing your work is simple: you need to become its reader instead of its writer."

At this stage, with my novel preparing to surface into the world, in just over 2 months, after a seven year labor, this essay was exactly what I needed to read.

Uwem Akpan

2008-06-12T09:20:00.005-04:00

Rockslinga pal Uwem Akpan will be reading at Shaman Drum tonight at 7. Uwem's new book, Say You're One of Them, is finally out. I've been waiting for this book ever since I read "My Parents' Bedroom." (The book's title is a line from that story.) Check out that story here, and be sure to get your hands on a copy of the collection. Uwem's child narrators are unforgettable. He currently lives in Zimbabwe and is only doing 4 cities, so if you're in the area, be sure to come!

My son's song about Obama

2008-06-10T19:32:00.003-04:00

Sung to the theme of The Itsy Bitsy Spider

The Barack Obama spider
Climbed up the Eiffel Tower
Down came the **Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds!** [that part sung to Lucy in the sky...]
and washed out Hillary Clinton
Out came the Barack and poned up all the cheese
and the Barack Obama spider got some delegates again.

Seven Nights, Jorge Luis Borges

2008-06-07T15:27:00.005-04:00

I recently read the series of lectures Borges gave in 1977. "Modestly" blind, Borges committed his lectures to memory, and lectured "by heart." In them, he explores Dante's Inferno, the Thousand and One Nights, nightmares, poetry, Buddhism, the Kabbalah, and blindness. That last lecture is, in my opinion, the most thrilling, poetic, and enchanting of the seven. Here is a shining quote:

I, too...have always known that my destiny was, above all, a literary destiny-- that bad things and some good things would happen to me, but that, in the long run, all of it would be converted into words. Particularly the bad things, since happiness does not need to be transformed: happiness is its own end.

If you haven't checked it out, do. I only wish there were more nights in the volume.

Book Review: Inclined to Speak

2008-06-04T09:32:00.010-04:00

There's something magical about the new anthology, Inclined to Speak. Maybe it's the fact that, although the poets included are listed alphabetically, there's a natural, beautiful progression in theme, rhythm, and voice. Or maybe it's the cover, a gorgeous, intricate, pop art-ish collection of people. Or maybe it's Hayan Charara's selection of poets, a grouping never before collected under the roof of one anthology. Or perhaps it's the poems themselves, each standing proud.

The first thing that greets you, when you begin the anthology, is Charara's jaw-dropping introduction, a must-read for poets, literature-lovers, students, academics, and all humans in general. The anthology then collects poems by better known writers like Naomi Shihab Nye, DH Melhem, and Lawrence Joseph, and showcases the talents of brilliant poets like Kevin Gerard Rashid, Nuar AlSadir, and Zaid Shlah.

If you've ever taken or taught an Arab American literature class, you know about the kinds of anthologies that are already available. Until recently, many books grouped poets together by age, or included fiction, essays, and poems, or had titles based on food. Inclined to Speak heralds a totally new, totally comprehensive, totally total approach to Arab American poetry: the writers are of all ages, backgrounds, and publishing histories. We have slam poets, traditional poets, feminist poets, poets. We have Muslims, Atheists, Catholics. We have long, epic poems, definition poems, ghazals, prose poems, more. The bottom line? We have. And it's wonderful.

Naturally pre-occupied with the idea of home and belonging, the poems raise interesting questions. Saladin Ahmed writes about Ibn Sina ("Avicenna"):

Is he writing on versification, jurisprudence,
medicine, remedies of the heart?
Which of this hundred books is he completing?
How can he be so calm, hearing the bombs fall
on his family, only a thousand years away?

In Elmaz Abinader's beautiful "This House, My Bones," the narrator asks, "How can we pack anything if not everything?"

Nathalie Handal writes, "Are you returning? Am I returning?"

"What to say?" Phillip Metres asks.

"What," Jack Marshall seems to pick up, "might you have said had you been allowed to speak?"

This collection provides a luminous answer.

Order your very own copy of the anthology here.

"...the place I go to be in Michigan."

2008-06-04T09:24:00.002-04:00

Bob Hicok's poem in the May 19th issue of The New Yorker rocked my Michigan world.

For the love of story collections

2008-05-30T13:00:00.000-04:00

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I've never read any fiction by Grace Paley. So I went out and bought her collected works last week, only to leave the book in the seat pocket in front of me on an airplane. I wonder who has it now, or if it ended up in the trash?

I've been thinking of story collections, about which collections have influenced me, and which I still love.

I love the stories of Kafka, Sherman Alexie, Alice Munro, Joyce, Gogol, Lorrie Moore, Katherine Mansfield, Isaac Babel, Borges, Nabokov, Salwa Bakr...my list can go on and on.

A writer I know recently said they saw collections as "MFA writing." When did this happen? Are stories doomed? I know this is a really old question, but I'm just now starting to feel sad about it.

"What is happening in Palestine is a great and tragic wrong."

2008-05-21T16:44:00.003-04:00

The participants in the Palestinian Lit Fest are back home, and they've got some things to say. Ian Jack, for one, went to the fest not wholly convinced that what was happening in Palestine was apartheid. He came home feeling differently.

UPDATE: You can see photos of the fest now at the website. Here is one against the wall, and here, one with most of the participants, the dome of the rock in the distance.

Further proof of Obama's Hotness

2008-05-21T16:27:00.005-04:00

This photo makes me melt.

And no, I haven't read the Fareed Zakaria book. But now I want to...

Cannes

2008-05-16T08:03:00.005-04:00

Cannes debuted Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir (Jamayil that is), an animated documentary about Sabra and Shatila. Check out the film's trailer.

Also at Cannes was the (crappy-looking) adaptation of Jose Saramago's Blindness.

"I was always the depressed guy in the basement."

2008-05-14T19:32:00.001-04:00

Sherman Alexie, one of my heroes, was recently profiled in the Guardian.

60 years later...

2008-05-13T00:45:00.002-04:00

There were mass protests at the Turin book fest opposing the festival's decision to celebrate Israeli writers. Meanwhile, Christopher Hitchens writes an eloquent and perfect little essay on the subject of the anniversary.

More on the writer as teacher

2008-05-12T16:48:00.005-04:00

I've often wondered, debated, and meditated about the role of the writer who writes about "different" locales, nationalities, and sexualities. The first question is always: different from what? Normative, mainstream, larger society? In the cases of queer and/or hyphenated American writers, this would be straight, White America.

What responsibility does such a writer have to the reader who doesn't know much about the writer's background, world, people? Do some writers write specifically because they don't see a wider societal representation or mirror to their concerns and obsessions? Is all writing a cooperative, and therefore educating, undertaking?

There are many views and strong beliefs about this: indeed, possibly as many views as there are writers and readers. Some may think a writer's only responsibility is to tell a story; or to break readers' hearts; or to shed light on a criminally overlooked part of history/society/the world; or to entertain; or to only make, create something.

One thing is possibly true across the board: any good writer teaches readers how to read her book; how the world of her book functions; what her characters' beliefs, actions, and preoccupations are.

So, what about the readers who approaches certain texts because they are intrigued by characters who live lives "different" from their own? Readers who want to learn something about the culture from the foreign-named author on the cover?

Writers simply cannot control what or why or how their readers approach their texts. They can control how they convey their world; whether or not they'll explain its customs, traditions, foods, etc.; whether their books will include glossaries. Incidentally, it seems the glossary has gone out of style. More and more, I've noticed writers either hoping the reader will research words on their own, rely on the reader to deduce meaning from the sentence, or explain the word right then and there for the reader.

Some may argue that publishers today put out books that tell readers what they already know. But what if the reader doesn't yet know much?

When I taught at Detroit public schools last year, most of the children didn't know where the Nile, let alone Egypt, was, even though there was a map on the left-hand corner of the black board. It is my belief that geography is the primary school teacher's responsibility. And yet I know that school budgets are rapidly shrinking, and world geography is absent from most state tests.

And in the gaps left behind after an incomplete education, a reader hungry for knowledge about place is bound to try to satisfy it through reading. Isn't that, after all, one of the reasons we read about Victorian England, Muslim Andalus, the Roman empire?

A writer's burden is already too immense to take on the role of educator. I agree with Aleksander Hemon that it is each person's responsibility to educate himself about the richness and complicated histories of other cultures. If one starts by reading a novel-- starts, and continues elsewhere-- so be it.

"It's the Americans' problem if they don't know about other lands..."

2008-05-12T11:42:00.003-04:00

That's Aleksander Hemon (lookin' fly, if I may say so) on Titlepage, about how being a writer isn't about being in elected office. Rabih Alameddine and Nam Le agree, Rabih saying he can't tell readers about cultures, only about personal stories.

Check it out; it's worth a viewing.

I'm really intrigued by the idea that (ethnic) books and writers aren't meant to inform or educate about place.

Summer Residency

2008-05-09T18:04:00.002-04:00

I'm heading to Maine for a residency this summer. I haven't done a residency since Hedgebrook in 2006. I'm excited. I'll be taking my collection of stories with me.

At the end of my Hedgebrook residency, I found out that Lebanon was about to be decimated by the Israeli army. I am terrified to think of what news will not reach me about Lebanon while I am in Maine.

17 Authors to Visit Palestine for Lit Fest

2008-05-05T20:43:00.004-04:00

Seventeen international authors will visit Palestine for the Palestine Lit Fest, including Mourid Barghouti, Roddy Doyle, Suheir Hammad, Nathalie Handal, Claire Messud, Pankaj Mishra, Andrew O'Hagan, Hanan al-Shaykh, and Ahdaf Soueif. From the press release: "In solidarity with the Palestinian people. In recognition of Palestine's cultural contribution to the world. In affirmation of the power of the word - And the responsibility ofspeaking it." Check out the website for more info. I wish I could go!

Review Copies Are Here

2008-05-02T17:18:00.004-04:00

The review copies of my novel arrived yesterday. I sat around and caressed them for an hour.

I'm ecstatic with the way Other Press designed the book. I feel blessed to be working with so many talented people. The book looks so cool-- better than any of my greatest expectations.

And four months from now, you can have a copy, too :)

Rabih = God

2008-04-29T10:57:00.004-04:00

This bears repeating: I am so in love with The Hakawati, by Rabih Alameddine. I'm not finished reading it, but I can say with confidence that this is the novel I have been waiting to read for years. It offers the best of so many worlds: it's an American novel, an Arab novel, and an Arab American novel; it's fantasy, history, humor, war-reportage, family saga, sexuality. It's an absolute gem. Please, please, please, read it. Now.

Arabic is not a disease

2008-04-28T23:18:00.004-04:00

My world was unwittingly rocked tonight when I hear Rev. Wright utter the following:

“Please run and tell my stuck-on-stupid friends that Arabic is a language — is a language, it is not a religion. Barack HUSSEIN Obama, Barack HUSSEIN Obama, Barack HUSSEIN Obama. There are Arabic-speaking Christians, there Arabic-speaking Jews, Arabic-speaking Muslims and Arabic-speaking atheists [extra points for this!]. Arabic is a language, it is not a religion. Stop trying to scare folks by giving them this Arabic name like it’s some disease.”

I actually cheered the television. I haven't done that since the first time I saw some Iron Chef episodes back in 2000...

Rabih Alameddine's The Hakawati

2008-04-28T08:14:00.002-04:00

Rabih Alameddine's new highly acclaimed novel, The Hakawati, is finally out, and I can't wait to get started on it. Rabih's other novels, Koolaids and I, the Divine, have been amazing. Check out his new website for more info, and buy your copy now.

The Arabic Booker Panel at the London Book Fair

2008-04-25T12:24:00.003-04:00

This year's LBF honored the Arab World, which meant there were dozens of panels to attend, with literary rock stars both on- and off-stage. Most of the panels were conducted in Arabic, with wildly gesticulating translators behind plexiglass, their voices snaking into non-Arabic-speaking attendees' headphones. The most interesting of these panels included the one for nominees of the Arabic Booker, which was moderated by Feisal Darraj, the James Wood of the Arab Lit World. Darraj introduced each writer, and the writers went on to talk about why they write, the impetus behind their nominated novels, and the political implications of their work.

Darraj introduced the entire panel by pinpointing the authors' common ground: he said the novels nominated this year all refused to worship the past, and instead, looked ahead to a golden future age.

The first introduced was the winner of this year's prize, Bahaa Taher, who went on to say that he wrote Sunset Oasis because he believes that the purpose of his writing is to show his society its flaws. He said this was a Moliere-ism, and then he paraphrased Chekov, too, saying that he didn't write sad stories to make people cry, but to force them to change.

The following authors all agreed, disagreed, and celebrated writing in their own ways. May Menassa said that she wrote to live. Jabbour Douaihy said he wrote simply because he liked it. And Khaled Khalifa, the most hilarious of them all, said he wrote because it was the only thing he was good at.

It was an inspiring panel, and later, I meant to ask Darraj how the committee decided on the nominees, but I was thwarted by throngs of readers. It was exciting to see so many people interested in and excited by Arabic fiction.

My sister is the world's biggest Badass

2008-04-22T21:51:00.001-04:00

Donia Jarrar plays Chopin Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor:

Back

2008-04-18T13:15:00.004-04:00

I'm back from London and happy to be home. I'm thrilled that I got to meet the literary rock stars I've looked up to since college. After a few days of immersion in the world of books, it's also nice to be back in the real world. Ann Arbor has transitioned into Spring. Yay!

London Calling

2008-04-15T19:43:00.004-04:00

Wow. I am having an amazing time over here. I'm exhausted, but I want to make sure I record all the cool things and people I've seen since Sunday, or at least some of them:

Small dogs attacking huge swans at Kensington Gardens

Adania Shibli and loads of other amazing people at a party

A Duchamp/Man Ray/ Picabia exhibit at Tate Modern

Ahmad el-Aidy crossing the street

Baha'a Taher and the other five nominees for the Arabic Booker (more later)

Pink Flamingos

Denis Johnson Davies, who speaks better Egyptian than I do

The Saqi bookstore

Ahdaf Soueif, Mourid Barghouti, Alaa el-Aswany, and hundreds of other writers @ The Roof Gardens

Indian food with Selma Dabbagh

It's been so fabulous...

Fabulous New Anthology of Arab American Poetry

2008-04-11T18:21:00.005-04:00

My dear friend Hayan Charara has edited an amazing new anthology of poetry titled Inclined to Speak. It just got reviewed in Booklist:

Booklist, April 1, 2008

Make no assumptions. As with all double-named ethnicities, the designation "Arab American" encompasses people of dramatically diverse backgrounds with stories of family, war, exile, lost languages, cherished traditions, forbidden love, and the art of reinventing home and self. An Arab American is an immigrant or American-born; a Muslim, Christian, or Jew; a human being faced with negative stereotypes, made worse in the wake of 9/11. Poet Charara has gathered 160 clarion poems by 39 Arab American poets (each briskly profiled) to create a potent and synergistic anthology that illuminates the slippery elements of identity. Familiar voices--Naomi Shihab Nye, Jack Marshall, and Lawrence Joseph--combine with poets who though new to most readers will be quickly embraced, so direct, lithesome, and affecting are their poems about the solace of nature and the paradoxes of the human condition. Here are poems of Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Egypt, of New York, Detroit, and South Dakota. Born in a Palestinian refugee camp Suheir Hammad reaches for the essence: "you're either with life, or against it. / affirm life."

--Donna Seaman

Order a copy now!

A MAP OF HOME, the Hebrew edition

2008-04-11T18:12:00.005-04:00

I recently found out that my novel will come out in a Hebrew edition with Kinneret-Zmora in Israel. This news came the day after I went to see The Band's Visit, an Israeli film which really moved me with its meditation on loneliness and tri-lingual love of music-- I saw the film as a homage to old Egyptian film.

I'm excited that Hebrew-speaking readers will get a chance to check out the novel. Kinneret -Zmora publishes Etgar Keret, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Paul Theroux, Kurt Vonnegut, Gunter Grass, Hanif Kureishi, Zadie Smith, Don Delillo, V.S. Naipaul, Hanif Kureishi and Arundhati Roy, among others.

Egypt on my mind

2008-04-09T08:44:00.002-04:00

The Egyptian government recently rejected a large number of liberal, left-leaning, and Muslim Brotherhood candidates from running in parliamentary elections. The ruling party then took 36,400 seats because they were "uncontested." Protests have been alive and well, and on Sunday workers held a general strike to demand decent living conditions. There have been wage revolts throughout the country, with some protesters dying at the hands of police. My thoughts and prayers are with the people, who have been living (poorly) under a quarter-century dictatorship. Enough is enough.

Baheyya on Aslan

2008-04-09T08:38:00.003-04:00

Baheyya wrote eloquently about Ibrahim Aslan in August. His newest book is called Something Like That and collects his most recent nonfiction. From the review:

Aslan is by far my favourite writer among his contemporaries. While very readable, Sonallah Ibrahim’s work is highly cerebral and lacks beauty (with the exception of his latest oeuvre). Baha’ Taher has become too transparently didactic and self-conscious in his writing, Khairy Shalabi’s storytelling is exuberant but unrestrainedly verbose and showy, Gamal al-Ghitani’s prose is too opaque and impenetrable, and reading Edwar al-Kharrat is grim work, what with all of his avant-garde philosophising. Mohamed El-Bisatie’s writing comes closest to Aslan’s poetic power and economical style, but his fixation on village life over-relies on predictable themes and characters.

Beautifully put! Check out Maalik el-Hazeen, or The Heron, if you haven't read his fiction.

Yay!!!

2008-04-04T17:14:00.005-04:00

My short stories just won a Chamberlain Award for Creative Writing here at the University of Michigan. I'm really excited! A portion will be donated to Hedgebrook, which nurtured me and inspired me to work on the collection. I encourage you to apply to Hedgebrook, and/or make a donation; every writer should get to experience the solace and beauty it offers.

Darwish Does Scotland

2008-04-03T12:10:00.002-04:00

The Palestinian National Theatre will be putting on Mahmoud Darwish's Jidariyya at the Edinburgh International Festival. There will also be a dance-theater piece(!) based on The Picture of Dorian Gray, and a new adaptation of Poe's The Tell Tale Heart. The festival opens with a concert of Brecht and Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. I want to go! The Fest is happening August 8-31. Click here for more info.

2008-04-03T12:08:00.001-04:00

Guess what this paragraph is about...

"Women on the streets [here] are so sober. They don't seem to have a sense of joy," said Alcala. "When they walk in here, they are fun people. They love to dance, laugh and be silly, but I never see that outside."

FInd out if you're right here.

Events Calendar

2008-04-01T17:08:00.016-04:00

ATLANTA
August 29-31
Decatur Book Festival

BOSTON
September 5
Harvard Bookstore, co-sponsored by Center for New Words
1256 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA
7PM

NYC
September 6
Blue Stockings
172 Allen Street
New York, NY 10002
212-777-6028
7PM

AUSTIN
September 11
BookPeople
603 N. Lamar
Austin, TX
7PM

ANN ARBOR
September 15
Shaman Drum
311-315 South State Street
734-662-7407
7:30 PM

LA
September 17
Skylight Books
1818 N. Vermont Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Tel: (323) 660-1175
7:30 PM

SONOMA
September 18
Readers' Books
130 E. Napa Street
Sonoma, CA 95476
707-939-1779
7:30 PM

SAN FRANCISCO
September 19
Books Inc. in Opera Plaza
601 Van Ness, SF
415.776.1111
7PM

CHICAGO
September 26
The Book Cellar
4736-38 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL 60625
773.293.2665
7PM

DETROIT
October 9
MOCAD
4454 Woodward Ave
Detroit, MI 48201
7PM

AUSTIN
November 1
Texas Book Festival
1-2pm in room E2.028
Texas State Capitol

PORTLAND
November 11
Wordstock Festival
11AM Reading
AND
3PM First Books Panel

Texas on my mind

2008-04-01T09:09:00.003-04:00

I've been seeing the shape of Texas everywhere. Today I thought I saw it on a sign that said, "Salad Bar," but that was just a rude sketch of a plant. And yesterday I thought I saw it in some crawling ivy against a wire fence. I'm not going crazy. I just identify the state's shape with a sense of home and belonging. And for someone to whom the question "Where are you from" requires a 7 sentence answer, the mandalic and healing powers of the Texas outline are sort of a big deal.

Silko on Guns

2008-03-30T21:11:00.003-04:00

Women's History Month is drawing to a close, and I want to make sure to celebrate it before it goes. Read Leslie Marmon Silko's essay, "In the Combat Zone." It may convince you to buy a .22.

I'm Developing the Perfect Plot for a Palestinian Sitcom

2008-03-27T23:55:00.010-04:00

An article about a Nablus "dream" house, from the BBC:

Less than a month after it was finished, Mr Nasif says Israeli troops banged on the door and came in with dogs and guns... they took control... of the house and used it as a base and observation post as the army invaded Nablus.
"They stuck maps on the wall in my living room and brought computers to make the room like a control room." They stayed for over a month.

This has apparently been happening for over six years. Some one HAS to make a sitcom about this. It would be fucking hilarious. Tony Chalhoub can play Mr. Nasif, and Goddess, I mean, Kathy Najimy can be his wife. Apparently, 22 people live in this house, including "his five children and 73-year-old mother." Can you say awesome opportunity for cameos? I can totally see a brunette Britney cameoing as a naughty Palestinian teenager. And Zack and Cody can play all the kids in the house. And Dan Hedaya would be an Israeli commando. Maybe he can fall in love with the 73-year-old grandma. She can be played by Bea Arthur! I will totally develop this for Fox. Call me, people.

Spring Trip

2008-03-24T14:20:00.000-04:00

I'm going to the London Book Fair in three weeks courtesy of Saqi/Telegram Books. I'll be doing a panel on Arabic translation with Hassan Daoud and Andre Gaspard, the publisher of Saqi, and meeting my US and German publishers face to face for the first time. I'm also hanging out with Selma Dabbagh, a really kick-ass Anglo-Arab writer who just finished her 1st novel. I'm so excited about this trip, and about meeting all these cool people. If you're a London reader, or just a lover of London, and know of some must-see places for me to visit, drop me a line!

Now Reading: Hiroshima

2008-03-24T12:00:00.003-04:00

John Hersey's amazing narrative follows six survivors of the bomb. (It was originally published in the New Yorker as a stand-alone piece, with no other articles or ads.)

The human mind seems to be unable to grasp such a huge event, and I don't think I've ever been able to imagine what it was like in the aftermath. I love the book because it shows in detail how people picked up the pieces and what it means to survive.

Haikuish: My Boyfriend Talks to Our Cat, Mahatma Boots, on St.Patty's Day

2008-03-18T13:36:00.001-04:00

“Tonight,” he said, “You’re
McMahatma. Militant
Irish Republican.”

Arab-American playwrights

2008-03-18T09:10:00.002-04:00

I recently read, and loved, Betty Shamieh's play "Chocolate in Heat." It defied all my expectations. You can find an excerpt of it in Shattering the Stereotypes:Muslim Women Speak Out.

One Long Winter

2008-03-18T09:07:00.002-04:00

It's grey and ice-drizzly here, and last night, we got some snow. I'm starting to feel like a weather gynecologist. Not another pussy? Not another snowflake! Not another 30 degree day! Not another cloud! It makes for good reading days, and snuggling with the boyfriend days, but I'm really really looking forward to Summer.

Gaitskill and Rand

2008-03-16T11:55:00.002-04:00

I'm reading and really digging Two Girls Fat and Thin, though I have reservations about the opening section. One of the coolest lines from the book, I thought, was "Every loneliness is a pinnacle"...until I realized that it was an Ayn Rand quote. Is this such a well known quote that she doesn't have to give Rand credit? I'm Rand-ignorant, so please, any Rand enthusiasts, help me out.

I've never had much interest in Rand's work but Two Girls Fat and Thin satirizes it. I'll read on past the heroine's childhood sketches and see if I still like it.

"Drinking and Writing Don't Mix"

2008-03-10T10:42:00.003-04:00

I saw the movie Big Bad Love again last night. I love it so much. Leon Barlow as Larry Brown rocks my world. I wish Brown was still around to write new stories and novels. Here is a touching article I found last night.

Wordplay

2008-03-09T22:10:00.004-04:00

Debride
From debridement |diˈbrēdmənt|
noun Medicine
the removal of damaged tissue or foreign objects from a wound.
ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from French, from débrider, literally ‘unbridle,’ based on bride ‘bridle’ (of Germanic origin).

I like this word because it sounds like someone undoing a Bride. Debride, as in to down or do away with a bride; to remove or reverse her; to form from a bride. To bride off, to bride from.

After the First Zionist Congress in 1897, the rabbis of Vienna decided to dispatch a two man fact-finding team to Palestine. The men's reply upon reaching Palestine: "The Bride is beautiful, but she is married to another man." Now the bride has been debrided. The damaged tissue/locals have been removed from the wound/Palestine.

The word reminds me of an Emir Kusturica movie, a Carson McCullers teen, a divorced carny. I'm not sure why. But I love when I word can give you a feeling.

In case you couldn't already tell

2008-03-06T09:41:00.002-05:00

Amnesty International, Save the Children, Cafod, Care International and Christian Aid have declared that Gaza's humanitarian condition is at its worst in 40 years.

New WWB

2008-03-03T19:36:00.003-05:00

The current Words Without Borders is on Lebanon, and features a cool piece ("Texterminators") by Mai Ghassoub, may she rest in peace.

2008-03-03T19:35:00.002-05:00

Back in Ann Arbor... I had a great time visiting with old friends, people who’ve known me for years, in some cases, for a decade. It was awesome to visit with my writer-friends Michalle and Hayan and Jim and Karen, all writers I love and admire. It was almost cathartic.

I graduate in six weeks. Yipeee!

More Austin Love

2008-02-25T12:25:00.004-05:00

This is Barton Springs Pool. It was blessed by Tibetan monks for being a peaceful and beautiful place. I felt renewed when I swam in it yesterday. Life is good.

Greetings from Austin

2008-02-22T09:35:00.005-05:00

Where burritos are so plentiful, people drop them in the grass.

...in Ann Arbor, the only thing you find dropped in the street is winterwear. I really really want to move back here, but how to live here and teach at U of M? My cabbie from the airport said it best: "have two homes!!!" Now if only I can find a million dollars in the grass so I can make that happen.

Hallefuckinlujah

2008-02-20T09:44:00.001-05:00

From BBC news: "Palestinians 'may declare state'." Let's go. Unilateral declaration. It's about fucking time.