Dinarzad's Children: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Fiction

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Overview


In The Thousand and One Nights it is Shahrazad's sister, Dinarzad, who each night asks for a story. This collection of twenty-four modern tales by eighteen authors offers up a mix of previously published and new works, creating a literary road map to Arab American literature today.

Here authors of Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian, Egyptian, and Libyan descent, some with established reputations, others new young writers, tell tales about Muslims and Christians, recent immigrants ...

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More About This Book

Overview


In The Thousand and One Nights it is Shahrazad's sister, Dinarzad, who each night asks for a story. This collection of twenty-four modern tales by eighteen authors offers up a mix of previously published and new works, creating a literary road map to Arab American literature today.

Here authors of Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian, Egyptian, and Libyan descent, some with established reputations, others new young writers, tell tales about Muslims and Christians, recent immigrants and fully assimilated Americans, teenagers and grandmothers, guerillas and peaceniks, professors, housewives, grocers, bookies, those who long for their homeland, and those who refuse to speak Arabic. A number of the stories center on conflicts between immigrants and their American-born children. Others wrestle openly with topics such as in-group stereotyping, domestic violence, familial discord, and other difficult issues. But what sets this literature apart from other ethnic literatures is its tendency to keep an eye on the overseas political situation. By turns sassy or lyrical, biting or humorous, always moving, the stories in this collection are good reading and an important contribution to the body of ethnic American literature.

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Editorial Reviews

Library Journal
In the broadening canon of American literature, Arab American writers have been overlooked. Only in the last few years has there been a keen interest in things Middle Eastern; with that comes the discovery of the Arab American voice. In this moving and important anthology of short fiction, creative writing professors Kaldas (Hollins Univ.) and Mattawa (Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor) introduce readers to 19 contemporary Arab American writers, some well established, others younger and emerging. They include Christians and Muslims, immigrants and the American-born, and individuals from all walks of life. The carefully selected pieces, some of which have never been published, include an eclectic mix of tales about social issues, generational and domestic conflicts, and stereotyping and estrangement in society. As this sampling shows, unlike other ethnic literatures, this literature conveys a distinct attachment to current politics in the region where these writers originated, often with a subtle sense of activism regarding Arab issues. While there are anthologies of Arab American literature in other genres, this work is distinct and will be an invaluable resource and a solid compendium. The brief introduction and biographical sketches of each author are sufficiently informative. Highly recommended for collections of all sizes.-Ali Houissa, Cornell Univ. Lib., Ithaca, NY Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781557289124
  • Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
  • Publication date: 11/28/2009
  • Edition description: New Edition
  • Edition number: 2
  • Pages: 380
  • Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 8.90 (h) x 1.30 (d)

Meet the Author


Pauline Kaldas was born in Egypt and immigrated to the United States in 1969. Her work has appeared in several journals and anthologies, and she was awarded a fellowship from the Virginia Commission for the Arts in Fiction. She teaches creative writing at Hollins University.

Khaled Mattawa teaches at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is the author of two books of poetry, Ismailia Eclipse (Sheep Meadow Press) and Zodiac of Echoes (Ausable Press), has translated four books of contemporary poetry, and is co-editor of Post Gibran: Anthology of New Arab American Writing. His translation of Hatif Janabi's poetry, Questions and Their Retinue, won a University of Arkansas Press Arabic Translation Prize.

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Table of Contents

How we are bound 1
The new world 15
A frame for the sky 31
Lost in freakin' Yonkers 43
Oh, Lebanon 57
Fire and sand 73
News from Phoenix 87
And what else? 103
The salad lady 115
The coal bin 121
Manar of Hama 129
The spiced chicken queen of Mickaweaquah, Iowa 137
Stage directions for an extended conversation 155
It's not about that 161
Airport 171
Bluebird 179
Edge of rock 185
Shakespeare in the Gaza Strip 197
Arabic lessons 207
The temptation of Lugman Abdallah 225
First snow 255
The hike to heart rock 265
The American way 281
My Elizabeth 295
Selected bibliography of Arab American literature 319
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