Scheherazade's Legacy: Arab and Arab American Women on Writing

176 Pages·2004·7.26 MB·English

by  Susan Muaddi Darraj

Scheherazade's Legacy
Arab and Arab American
Women on Writing
Edited by Susan Muaddi Darraj
Foreword by Barbara Nimri Aziz
P P A E G ER We.«po ,Co„„
rt =
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Scheherazade's legacy : Arab and Arab American women on writing / edited by Susan
Muaddi Darraj; foreword by Barbara Nimri Aziz,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-275-98176-2 (alk. paper)
1. American literature—Arab American authors—History and criticism—Theory, etc.
2. American literature—Women authors—History and criticism—Theory, etc.
3. Women—Arab countries—Intellectual life. 4. Arab American women—Intellectual
life. 5. Women and literature—Arab countries. 6. American literature—Arab
influences. 7. Women and literature—United States. 8. Women authors, American—
Biography. 9. Arab American women—Biography. 10. Women authors, Arab—
Biography. 11. Authorship. I. Darraj, Susan Muaddi.
PS153.A73S34 2004
810.9'9287'089927—dc22 2004049571
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 2004 by Susan Muaddi Darraj
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2004049571
ISBN: 0-275-98176-2
First published in 2004
Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www. praeger.com
Printed in the United States of America
<gr
The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984)
10 9 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Copyright Acknowledgments
The authors and publisher gratefully acknowledge permission for use of the following
material:
Excerpt from "Grant Me Love That I May Bloom and Green," by Nizar Kabbani. Translated
from the Arabic by Mohja Kahf. Published in Grand Street 68 (1999), pp. 106-111.
Excerpts from "There: In the Light and Darkness of the Self and of the Other," by Etel Adnan.
Published by Post-Apollo Press (35 Marie Street, Sausalito, CA 94965; www.postapollopress.
com; e-mail: [email protected]).
Excerpts from Chapter 10 in Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber. Copyright © 2003 by Diana Abu-
Jaber. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
For Bassam and Alice Muaddi,
Aboud, ]awad, and Samy Muaddi,
and
Elias Darraj
Contents
Foreword xi
Barbara Nimri Aziz
Acknowledgments xvii
Introduction 1
Susan Muaddi Darraj
IDENTITY
Poetry Is My Home Address 7
Mohja Kahf
Nursing the Miracle 16
Standing Amazed at the Foot of Every Tree 17
A Woman Who Reads Poetry 18
E-mail to the Muse 21
Lisa Suhair Majaj
The Arab-American Woman Reads Poetry 32
"What Happens Next? Be the First to Know.
CNN Breaking News" 34
Countdown 34
Vlll Contents
My Country, My Words: Reflections of My Life as a Writer 37
Nathalie Handal
El Almuerzo de Tia Habiba 42
In Search of Midnight 43
Detained 45
The Conflict 46
POLITICS
The Itinerary of an Arab American Writer 51
Etel Adrian
THERE 58
On Becoming a Writer 63
Ghada Karmi
The Last Chance 70
Directing My Pen Inward 79
Suheir Hammad
ramallah walk 82
INSPIRATION
Doing What We Can 87
Naomi Shihab Nye
Seatmates 92
Writing Drop by Drop 97
Dima Hilal
you got some nerve 102
Mediterranean Breeze 104
america 104
MEMORY
The Relentlessness of Memory 109
Elmaz Abinader
Our People: Pennsylvania, 1959 114
Contents IX
A Life of Stories 121
Diana Abu-Jaber
Crescent 124
LANGUAGE
The Coming Out of the Chameleon 133
Samia Serageldin
El Greco 138
For My Mother Who Gave Me the Words, and My Father Who
Gave Me the Sound 143
Marian Haddad
Monologue to My Father 146
Durazno Street, El Paso, Texas 147
For Naomi Shihab Nye 149
Let It Be Each Day 153
Index 155
About the Contributors 157
This page intentionally left blank
fyoswwucMcl
Barbara Nimri Aziz
Inevitably, a time arrives in a people's history when a shared awakening
occurs. In varying degrees of awareness, driven by the feeling that "It is up
to me to tell my people's story," we begin. Or, we are compelled simply to
tell my own story.
James Baldwin, when he emerged as a political voice, concluded that
he could not accept what he once believed—that he was an interloper, that
he could have "no other heritage [than White heritage] which I could pos
sibly hope to use," and he would simply have to accept his special atti
tude, his special place in the world scheme. At one time, he had believed
that otherwise, "I would have no place in any scheme."+ Ultimately Bald
win rejected that fate and he went on to write some of the finest prose in
American literature. Today, just fifty years later he has earned a place as
one of America's foremost writers.
There are many similarities between Arab and African American ex
periences in the United States, and Arabs in general would gain much in
our struggle for empowerment and recognition by studying our positions
vis-a-vis the mainstream white society more closely. This applies to artists
as well as community leaders.
Drawing from his analysis of his heritage and how he might negotiate
the world of the African American and the dominant white culture he
found so oppressive, Baldwin said, "One writes out of one thing only—
one's own experience."+ It is not easy when one finds oneself embedded in
a hostile environment that is also one's beloved home. "Everything de
pends on how relentlessly one forces from this experience the last drop,