University of Arkansas Press Publishes New Edition of Award-Winning Anthology of Arab American Fiction

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – When Dinarzad’s Children: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Fiction was originally published in 2004, the groundbreaking book was very well received. It won a Silver Award from ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Awards in the anthologies category and received a Starred Review in Library Journal, describing it as “a moving and important anthology ... invaluable. ... [and] highly recommended.”

The new, expanded edition of Dinarzad’s Children (paperback, $24.95), also edited by Pauline Kaldas and Khaled Mattawa, includes 16 new stories — 30 in all — and new voices that reveal the complex and varied experiences of Arab American life. Now organized into sections that invite readers to enter the stories from a variety of directions, here are stories that reveal the initial adjustments of immigrants, the challenges of forming relationships, the political nuances of being Arab American, the vision directed toward homeland, and the ongoing search for balance and identity.

The authors’ family backgrounds, representing such countries as Syria, Palestine, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, are as diverse as the subjects of their stories. Some of the outstanding contributors include D.H. Melhem; the University of Arkansas’ Mohja Khaf; the 2008 IMPAC International Dublin Award winner Rawi Hage; Alia Yunnis, a PEN Emerging Writers Fellow; and Diana Abu-Jaber, winner of an American Book Award.

As the editors write in their Introduction to the book, these writers “attempt to familiarize the average reader with Arab culture and its presence in the United States, with its positive and negative aspects. ... More ethnically and politically conscious, the current generation of Arab American writers sheds more critical light on issues of heritage, gender, nationalism, and assimilation within the Arab American community.” Taken together, these stories are “testaments to the humanity of a heterogeneous and complex group of people.”

Pauline Kaldas is assistant professor of English and creative writing at Hollins University. She was born in Egypt and immigrated to the United States in 1969. She is the author of Letters from Cairo and Egyptian Compass. Khaled Mattawa is assistant professor of English in the University of Michigan’s creative writing program. He was born in Libya and immigrated to the United States in 1979. He is the author of three books of poetry and a number of translations of contemporary Arabic poetry. His work has won two Pushcart Prizes, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and awards from the Academy of American Poets, PEN, and the National Endowment for the Arts.