Susan Muaddi Darraj

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Susan Muaddi Darraj, 2019

Susan Muaddi Darraj (born May 11, 1975) is a Palestinian American writer.[1] Born in Philadelphia to Palestinian immigrant parents, she attended Rutgers University - Camden, NJ, where she earned a master's degree in English Literature. She has authored several collections of fiction, young adult and children's books, as well as academic and personal essays and articles. Muaddi Darraj is a tenured professor of English Literature at Harford Community College as well as a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at The Johns Hopkins University. She lives in Baltimore, MD.[citation needed]

Books[edit]

The Inheritance of Exile[2][edit]

Muaddi Darraj's first work of fiction, The Inheritance of Exile, was published by the University of Notre Dame Press in 2008. It has been compared to Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club because of its structure: it offers several, intertwined stories narrated by Palestinian American women, as well as stories narrated by their immigrant mothers. The book is set in the working-class neighborhood of South Philadelphia, and its characters grapple with the intersectional identities.

A Curious Land[3][edit]

The book jacket of A Curious Land

She is best known for her short story collection, A Curious Land, which won an American Book Award[4] in 2016 and the AWP Grace Paley Prize.[5] The stories are closely linked together, a style known as a mosaic novel. A Curious Land follows the inhabitants of a fictional Palestinian West Bank village, Tel al-Hilou ("the pretty hilltop") and traces their intertwined lives from the era of the Ottoman Empire through the first Intifada. Spanning almost a century, the stories are mostly love stories, set amidst turbulent times. Booklist said, "Darraj writes traditional, tragic love stories set among Orthodox Palestinians during periods of historical unrest. A superb collection and a perfect selection for public libraries."[6] A Curious Land was also shortlisted for a Palestine Book Award.[7]

American Writers Museum, Chicago, 2019

Farah Rocks[8][edit]

In 2020, Muaddi Darraj published a children's book series, Farah Rocks, about a Palestinian American girl named Farah Hajjar. The series, which is the first in North America to feature a Palestinian American or Arab American protagonist, earned a starred book review by the School Library Journal, which said, "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."[9] The series has received much praise for its groundbreaking portrayal of a happy, healthy and well-adjusted child of Arab immigrants, which contradicts the usual "crisis plot" in which children of color are cast.[citation needed]

Other books[edit]

She edited Scheherazade's Legacy: Arab and Arab American Women on Writing , which was published in 2004 by Praeger Publishers. With Waïl Hassan, she co-edited a volume for the MLA's Approaches to Teaching World Literature Series on Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz. She has also contributed book chapters to several anthologies and collections, including Dinarzad's Children: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Fiction and Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism.

Muaddi Darraj authored several young adult biographies, including books about the lives of groundbreaking Americans such as Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente (baseball players), as well as Mary Eliza Mahoney[10] (the first African American nurse); she has also written biographies for young readers about famous writers, including Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Amy Tan.

Articles[edit]

The topic of diversity in publishing is one of her themes. Muaddi Darraj has written frequently about the need for more diverse book offerings, which benefit all young readers, especially children of color. An op-ed she wrote for the Baltimore Sun, "Black and brown children not represented in children's books," was widely circulated and raised awareness of this issue.[11] She has also written for Middle East Eye[12] and other venues on this topic.

She has written several articles on Arab and Arab American women and feminism, including "Understanding the Other Sister: The Case of Arab Feminism"[13] and "It's Not an Oxymoron: The Search for an Arab Feminism," both of which are widely taught and frequently anthologized.

Awards[edit]

Cultural advocacy[edit]

In 2019, Muaddi Darraj launched the #TweetYourThobe social media campaign to promote Palestinian culture and the congressional campaign of Rashida Tlaib. The campaign went viral and garnered much attention for Palestinian women's artwork and Palestinian culture. #TweetYourThobe was covered widely by CNN, The New York Times,[16] Forbes Magazine, Business Insider, NPR,[17] Public Radio International,[18] and other venues. Muaddi Darraj later wrote an essay about how a poem by Langston Hughes inspired her to think of the idea.[19]

Bibliography[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Susan Muaddi Darraj: Fiction Writer and Creator of #TweetYourThobe | IMEU".
  2. ^ "The Inheritance of Exile". University of Notre Dame Press. Retrieved 2011-10-29.
  3. ^ Darraj, Susan Muaddi (2017-02-14). A Curious Land: Stories from Home (Reprint ed.). University of Massachusetts Press.
  4. ^ McCauley, Mary Carole. "Baltimore's Susan Muaddi Darraj wins American Book Award for 'A Curious Land'". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 2022-02-26.
  5. ^ "The Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction". AWP. University of Massachusetts Press.
  6. ^ Curious Land: Stories from Home, by Susan Muaddi Darraj | Booklist Online.
  7. ^ "A Curious Land: Stories from Home". Palestine Book Awards. Retrieved 2022-02-26.
  8. ^ Darraj, Susan Muaddi (2020-04-28). Farah Rocks Fifth Grade. Ruaida Mannaa (Illustrated ed.). Stone Arch Books.
  9. ^ Muaddi, Darraj, Susan. "Farah Rocks Fifth Grade". School Library Journal. Retrieved 2022-02-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ Darraj, Susan Muaddi (2004-12-01). Mary Eliza Mahoney and The Legacy Of African-American Nurses (1st ed.). Chelsea House Publications.
  11. ^ "Black and brown children not represented in children's books". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 2022-02-26.
  12. ^ "Collapsing the shelves: The challenges of publishing Arab American children's books". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 2022-02-26.
  13. ^ East, Susan Muaddi DarrajTopics: Feminism Movements Philosophy Places: Middle (2002-03-01). "Monthly Review | Understanding the Other Sister: The Case of Arab Feminism". Monthly Review. Retrieved 2022-02-26.
  14. ^ "United States Artists » Susan Muaddi Darraj". Retrieved 2022-02-27.
  15. ^ "John Gardner Fiction Book Award Past Winners - English, General Literature and Rhetoric | Binghamton University". English, General Literature and Rhetoric - Binghamton University. Retrieved 2022-02-27.
  16. ^ Zraick, Karen (2019-01-03). "As Rashida Tlaib Is Sworn In, Palestinian-Americans Respond With #TweetYourThobe". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-02-26.
  17. ^ "Viral Hashtag Celebrates Palestinian-American Representation". NPR.org. Retrieved 2022-02-26.
  18. ^ "Tweet your thobe". The World from PRX. Retrieved 2022-02-26.
  19. ^ "How Langston Hughes Inspired #TweetYourThobe". The Rumpus.net. 2019-01-30. Retrieved 2022-02-26.

External links[edit]

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