Beyond Memory: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Creative Nonfiction

by Pauline Kaldas (Editor), Khaled Mattawa (Editor)

Overview

This anthology brings together the voices of both new and established Arab American writers in a compilation of creative nonfiction that reveals the stories of the Arab diaspora in styles that range from the traditional to the experimental. Writers from Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, and Syria explore issues related to politics, family, culture, and racism. Coming from different belief systems and cultures and including first- and second-generation immigrants as well as those whose identities encompass more than a single culture, these writers tell stories that speak to the complexity of the Arab American experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610756846
Publisher:	University of Arkansas Press
Publication date:	03/06/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	250
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Pauline Kaldas is the author of Looking Both Ways, The Time between Places, Letters from Cairo, and the Egyptian Compass, and she is the coeditor of Dinarzad’s Children: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Fiction. She is professor of English and creative writing at Hollins University.

 

Khaled Mattawa is the author of the poetry collection Tocqueville and coeditor of Dinarzad’s Children: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Fiction. A MacArthur Fellow and a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, he is professor of English and creative writing at the University of Michigan, where he edits the Michigan Quarterly Review.

Read an Excerpt

"The desire to make ourselves visible on our own terms drives the creation of this anthology of Arab American creative nonfiction. Within these pages, we have brought together the varied voices of those who live in the Arab diaspora. These voices originate in Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Libya, and Lebanon, encompassing North Africa and the Middle East. They stretch across the ocean to the United States to reveal the effect of traversing these geographies.

Many of these authors are well-established writers while others are just beginning their writing careers. There are stories of those who move between homeland and the United States; for those who immigrated, a return to homeland is a return to a remembered place, and for the second generation it is a return to a place instilled through the memories of others. It is also a return to another self, revealing the ways we continue to carry our homelands and the ways we live beyond our own time and place. Together, the stories included in this anthology explore what it means to move back and forth across the political and cultural landscapes of the Arab diaspora and how that movement has been ever more complicated."

—Pauline Kaldas and Khaled Mattawa

Table of Contents

Elmaz Abinader | Pain Management

George Abraham | in which you do not ask the state of israel to commit suicide

Nabeel Abraham | On the Road with Bob: Peddling in the Early Sixties

Rabih Alameddine | Comforting Myths: Notes from a Purveyor

Hayan Charara | Going Places

Safia Elhillo | at the intersection

Joseph Geha | Where I’m From—Originally

Hadil Ghoneim | Baba and the Pontiac

Layla Azmi Goushey | Profile of a Citizen: Generations Then and Now

Tariq Al Haydar | Machine Language

Randa Jarrar | Biblioclast

Fady Joudah | Your Name Is on the List and Other Vignettes

Joe Kadi | The Saving Grace of a Favorite Cousin

Mohja Kahf | I Cannot Go to Syria

Pauline Kaldas | From Looking Both Ways: Walking Home, To Walk Cautiously in the World, A Sense of Direction

Laila Lalami | So to Speak

Lisa Suhair Majaj | Journeys to Jerusalem

Khaled Mattawa | Repatriation: A Libya Memoir

Iman Mersal | The Displaced Voice

Philip Metres | The Paperless “Palestinian” and the Russian P’liceman

Susan Muaddi Darraj | Bint Al-Halal: Mosaic of an Arab American Girlhood

Naomi Shihab Nye | One Village

Steven Salaita | Why I Was Fired

Mathew Shenoda | Christopher Columbus Was A Damn Blasted Liar: On the Narrative of Discovery in Global Literature

Kamelya Omayma Youssef | Frayed Towel Made Holy: Prayer [Rug] for This Nonbeliever

Editorial Reviews

“Pauline Kaldas and Khaled Mattawa collaborate again to put together a wonderful anthology of creative nonfiction by Arab American authors. The depth and breadth of this anthology speak for the multiple facets of the Arab diaspora in the US, reflecting on the challenges of occupying multiple political and cultural landscapes and reconnecting the disconnection between US hegemonic policies in the Middle East and domestic US racial politics. The authors in this anthology, such as Rabih Alameddine, Iman Mersal, Elmaz Abinader, Matthew Shenoda, Mohja Kahf, and Joe Kadi, to name only a few, offer a thick description for the most intricate and intimate moments in their lives as children and as adults growing up in different countries, feeling estranged in both home country and host country.”

—Dalia Gomaa

 

“Pauline Kaldas and Khaled Mattawa break new ground by bringing us another milestone collection of Arab American literary works. This anthology’s focus on creative nonfiction beautifully captures Arab American literature’s arrival as a vital and necessary part of the transnational American experience.”

—Carol W.N. Fadda

“This collection offers up a spectrum of bold and vivid Arab American voices. These stories are startling, brave, funny, heartbreaking, and original. Together, they make an important contribution in both variety and depth to the modern literary scene. Beyond Memory is an essential work for anyone interested in the Arab American experience.”

—Diana Abu-Jaber

From the Publisher