This year has been incredibly bountiful and incredible. I traveled like crazy- to London, Paris, Greece, Germany, and coast to coast. My partner and I got married in a beautiful outdoor ceremony. We decided to move south, back to Austin, and he took a courageous step towards a new career.

I hope next year will bring a new teaching job, more readers, and more peace and equality to all.

In case you missed it, here are a couple of new publications:

In the New York Times Magazine: The Missing-Piece Son

In Five Chapters: Accidental Transients

And look for an essay in The Progressive next month.

All best,

Randa

Beirut39, a Hay Festival project, aims to celebrate 39 of the most interesting Arab writers under the age of 40. There’s an article in The National about this…Here’s an excerpt:

Around 500 young authors from across the Arab world as well as the Arab diaspora in Europe and America submitted their works. The vast majority of these texts were written in Arabic…

The 39 authors will travel to Beirut in April for four days of literary talks, debates and recitals. Libraries, bookshops, cafes and universities will welcome visitors to discuss the issues at the heart of Arab contemporary fiction. The festival hopes to attract a diverse audience, reflecting the power of writing to stimulate social cohesion and cultural understanding.

To mark the occasion, Bloomsbury will publish Beirut39, an anthology of fiction and poetry by the selected authors with an introduction by the Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf. The book will be published in English and Arabic in the UK, the US and the Arab world.

I’m so honored and excited to be a part of such a special project! Stay tuned for more details and adventures.

The paperback edition of A MAP OF HOME is now available from Penguin books.

You can get it at your local bookstore or on Amazon, Powells, or B&Noble.

About the book: Randa Jarrar’s fresh, funny and fearless debut novel chronicles the coming-of-age of Nidali, one of the most unique and irrepressible narrators in contemporary fiction. Born in 1970s Boston to an Egyptian-Greek mother and a Palestinian father, the rebellious Nidali—whose name is a feminization of the word “struggle”— soon moves to a very different life in Kuwait. There the family leads a mildly eccentric middle-class existence—until the Iraqi invasion drives them first to Egypt and then to Texas. With echoes of Jhumpa Lahiri and Marjane Satrapi, this critically acclaimed debut novel is set to capture the hearts of everyone who’s ever wondered what their own map of home might look like.

Also, I did an interview with Zocalo which you can read here.

The Austin-American Statesman profiled me in their Books section.

Electronic Intifada, which I love, reviewed my book here.

Enjoy!