Photo Courtesy of Daniel Vasta
“Susan Muaddi Darraj’s well-crafted characters and her brilliant attention to the details of their individual and collective experiences of love, occupation, immigration, and loss over the span of several decades creates an immensely powerful, intimate, and complex portrait of Palestinian lives, both at home and in the diaspora.”
― Carol Fadda-Conrey
New novel pub date: January 16, 2024!
“Not the Arabian Nights, but a new Arabian Days for our time, the intricately interlocked stories of Behind You Is the Sea bring us richly detailed news of the Palestinian immigrant experience in America.” — Madison Smartt Bell, author of All Souls’ Rising, Child of Light: A Biography of Robert Stone, and Behind the Moon
“Susan Muaddi Darraj’s Behind You is the Sea is a powerful and moving novel about the lives of Palestinian immigrants. Told in rich, lush prose, this propulsive and beautiful novel will stay with me for a long time. I loved it.” — Brandon Hobson, National Book Award finalist and author of The Removed
“We desperately need more books like this in which Palestinian people are presented as beautiful, richly complex human beings, not consigned to insulting, diminishing references. Gratitude to Susan Muaddi Darraj for her very necessary, beautiful work.” — Naomi Shihab Nye
“A must read novel with unforgettable characters and an unwavering, fresh voice—I couldn’t put it down until the very last page! Darraj delivers an instant, necessary, and authentic classic to the cannon of Arab-American literature.” — Etaf Rum, A Woman Is No Man
“Behind You Is The Sea is a spellbinding, complexly simple examination of family, culture, and what it means to exist, what it means to be seen, and what it takes to make invisible visible. This novel will capture your heart and mind.” –Morgan Talty, award-winning author of Night of the Living Rez
“Restoring Your Energy”: An Interview with Kirstie Myvett
Author Kirstie Myvett resides in the rich cultural city of New Orleans with her family. She is a cofounder of KidLit in Color and believes that representation matters in all places and spaces, especially in the pages of books. She is a…
9 Essential Apps for My Writing Career (Productivity Tools for the Busy Writer – Part II)
I love hearing about which apps writers use to be productive. I’ve learned about and tried many of them in order to be as efficient as possible in managing my writing career. Again, I offer this list in the context…
“Showing Up for the Work”: An Interview with Fiction Writer Rosalia Scalia
Rosalia Scalia is the author of the story collection, Stumbling Toward Grace (Unsolicited Press, November 2021) and a second, forthcoming collection. Her fiction has appeared in numerous literary magazines, including Notre Dame Review, North Atlantic Review, The Portland Review, Oklahoma Review, and many…
Farah Rocks: The first children’s book series to feature an Arab American character…
What People Are Saying
A Curious Land
“These linked stories about the people of the village of Tel al-Hilou, and their descendants in today’s United States of America, span over a century. The author’s empathy for the large cast of embattled characters is miraculous. In particular, we get to know the quietly heroic Palestinian women in these stories as intimately as we know the people closest to us. Astonishingly, this collection is, above all, about the transformative powers of love.” — Jaime Manrique, author of Our Lives Are the Rivers
The Inheritance of Exile
“This sweet, sorrowful book is rich with insight. The Inheritance of Exile tells an authentic story of Arab-American life-these characters are true, expressive, and moving. A fully engaging, satisfying collection indeed.” — Diana Abu-Jaber, author of Origin, Crescent, and The Language of Baklava
Farah Rocks
“Darraj introduces smart, courageous, and sensitive Farah Hajjar, a fifth-grader whose biggest concern should be deciding on a topic for her application essay at the Magnet Academy. […] Farah is a well-rounded character with ambitions and struggles; readers will identify with her challenges and root for her to succeed. A first purchase for upper elementary readers.” — School Library Journal
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