Randa Jarrar

{{short description|American writer and translator (born 1978)}}{{Citations broken|date=March 2025}}{{Infobox writer

| name = Randa Jarrar

| image =

| image_size =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1978}}

| birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

| language = English, Arabic

| education = Sarah Lawrence College (BA)
University of Texas at Austin (MA)
University of Michigan (MFA)

| notableworks =

| awards = Hopwood Award
Arab American Book Award

| years_active =

| website =

}}

Randa Jarrar (born 1978), also known as Ra Jarrar{{Cite tweet |number=1417439631071580161 |user=randajarrar |title=📣📣Hello world📣📣! I'm trans and femme. I use the names Ra and Randa. He/him/she/her/habibi/habibti/daddy/goddess are my pronouns 💜 Remember: trans people don't owe you any particular appearance. And my tits aren't going anywhere. |first=Randa |last=Jarrar |date=July 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210720110208/https://twitter.com/randajarrar/status/1417439631071580161 |archive-date=July 20, 2021 |url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=https://cah.fresnostate.edu/about/directory/english/jarrar-randa.html|title=Ra Jarrar|website=Fresno State University|language=en|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240724004100/https://cah.fresnostate.edu/about/directory/english/jarrar-randa.html |archive-date=24 July 2024 |access-date=5 January 2025}} is an American writer and translator. Her{{efn|Jarrar uses both he/him and she/her pronouns. This article uses she/her for consistency.}} first novel, the coming-of-age story A Map of Home (2008), won her the Hopwood Award, and an Arab American Book Award. Since then she has published short stories, essays, the collection, Him, Me, Muhammad Ali (2016), and the memoir, Love Is an Ex-Country (2021).

She teaches creative writing in an MFA program at California State University at Fresno.{{cite web|last1=Anteola|first1=Bryant-Jon|title=Fresno State professor stirs outrage, calls Barbara Bush an 'amazing racist'|url=http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article209197719.html|website=The Fresno Bee|access-date=18 April 2018}}

Biography

Randa Jarrar was born in 1978 in Chicago, to an Egyptian mother and a Palestinian father. She grew up in Kuwait and Egypt. After the Gulf War in 1991, she and her family returned to the United States, living in the New York area.{{Cite web|title = Randa Jarrar {{!}} Penguin Random House|url = http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/86195/randa-jarrar/|website = PenguinRandomhouse.com|access-date = 2015-08-06}} Jarrar studied creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College, receiving an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan.

Jarrar became a creative writing professor at California State University.{{cite web | url=https://www.greenapplebooks.com/event/9th-ave-randa-jarrar | title=9th Ave: Randa Jarrar | Green Apple Books }}{{When|date=March 2025}}

Jarrar has written about her experiences with domestic violence and reproductive coercion.{{Cite web |last=Jarrar |first=Randa |title=The Body That Learned What Love Is – Unruly Bodies |url=https://medium.com/s/unrulybodies/the-body-that-learned-what-love-is-7d53f7f4e362 |access-date=2018-09-28 |website=Medium}} She is openly queer{{Cite news |date=2016-09-19 |title=My Interview with the One-and-only Randa Jarrar |url=https://stephanieabraham.com/2016/09/19/my-interview-with-the-one-and-only-randa-jarrar/ |access-date=2018-09-28 |work=Stephanie Abraham |language=en-US}} and uses he/him and she/her pronouns.

Writings

Jarrar has written nonfiction and fiction, publishing her first short story in the prestigious Ploughshares literary journal in Fall 2004.{{Cite web|url=https://www.pshares.org/issues/fall-2004|title=Fall 2004 {{!}} Ploughshares|website=www.pshares.org|language=en|access-date=2018-09-28}} Her short story, "You Are a 14-Year-Old Arab Chick Who First Moved to Texas" was the winner of the first Million Writers Award for online fiction. She has published{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/magazine/i-was-18-and-pregnant.html|title=I Was 18 and Pregnant|last=Jarrar|first=Randa|newspaper=The New York Times |date=13 April 2012 |access-date=2018-09-28|language=en}} two Lives{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/magazine/06lives-t.html|title=The Missing-Piece Son|last=Jarrar|first=Randa|newspaper=The New York Times |date=4 December 2009 |access-date=2018-09-28|language=en}} columns in The New York Times Magazine, exploring her past as a single parent.

Her first novel came out in 2008. The Christian Science Monitor wrote: “Randa Jarrar takes all the sappy, beloved clichés about 'where you hang your hat' and blows them to smithereens in her energizing, caustically comic debut novel, A Map of Home.”{{Cite news |title=A Map of Home |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2008/0925/a-map-of-home |access-date=2025-03-28 |work=Christian Science Monitor |issn=0882-7729}} Her second book, a 2016 collection of stories, won a PEN Oakland Award,{{Cite news|url=http://www.sarabandebooks.org/blog/2017/11/15/jarrar-wins-pen-oakland-award-fridlund-and-passarello-land-on-year-end-best-of-lists|title=JARRAR WINS PEN OAKLAND AWARD, FRIDLUND AND PASSARELLO LAND ON YEAR-END "BEST OF" LISTS|work=Sarabande Books|access-date=2018-09-28|language=en-US}} a Story Prize Spotlight Award,{{Cite web|url=http://thestoryprize.org/spotlight-award-winner/|title=Spotlight Award Winner|website=The Story Prize|language=en-US|access-date=2018-09-28}} and an American Book Award.{{Cite web|url=http://www.fresnostatenews.com/2017/08/09/professor-and-author-randa-jarrar-wins-american-book-award/|title=Professor and author Randa Jarrar wins American Book Award – Fresno State News|website=www.fresnostatenews.com|date=9 August 2017 |language=en-US|access-date=2018-09-28}}

Jarrar was criticized for commentary on the death of former U.S. first lady Barbara Bush. She described the former first lady as "a generous and smart and amazing racist who, along with her husband, raised a war criminal. Fuck outta here with your nice words", referring to Bush's son, former President George W. Bush.{{cite news |last1=Mays |first1=Mackenzie |last2=Tehee |first2=Joshua |date=April 19, 2018 |title='Where's the lie?' Authors rally behind Fresno State prof who called Barbara Bush racist |work=Fresno Bee |url=http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article209347759.html |access-date=20 April 2018}} In a further statement, she elaborated on her criticism of the Bush family, including the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the hearings of Anita Hill.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thecut.com/2018/04/randa-jarrar-fresno-state-professor-interview.html|title=Fresno State Professor Speaks Out for First Time Since Barbara Bush Backlash|last=Paiella|first=Gabriella|work=The Cut|access-date=2018-09-28|language=en}} Fresno State released a statement condemning her comments as critics called for her termination.{{cite web|title=Professor's tweet about Barbara Bush was 'beyond free speech,' Fresno State president says|url=http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/education/article209227364.html|access-date=20 April 2018|publisher=}} During the controversy, Jarrar provided a telephone number on her Twitter account as if it was her own contact number, stating "If you really wanna reach me, here's my number ok?"{{cite web|last1=Anteola|first1=Bryant-Jon|title='Here's my number': Fresno State professor's post floods Arizona State crisis line with calls|url=https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe/2018/04/19/fresno-state-professor-randa-jarrar-prank-floods-asu-hotline-barbara-bush/532486002/|website=AZ Central|access-date=19 April 2018}} The phone number that she provided was that of an emergency suicide/crisis hotline at Arizona State University. ASU said that they did not believe anyone who needed to get through was unable to.{{Cite news|url=https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/fresno-state-professor-tweeted-out-asu-student-crisis-hotline-as-her-own-phone-number/1129596090|title=Fresno State professor tweeted out ASU student-crisis hotline as her own phone number|last=Rupe|first=Megan|date=2018-04-19|work=YOURCENTRALVALLEY|access-date=2018-09-28|language=en-US}}

Jarrar wrote an opinion piece called "Why I Can't Stand White Belly-Dancers", published in Salon in 2014. In this piece, she accused white women who belly dance to be committing cultural appropriation and brownface.{{Cite web|title=Why I can't stand white belly dancers| date=5 March 2014 |url=http://www.salon.com/2014/03/04/why_i_cant_stand_white_belly_dancers/|access-date=2015-08-20}} Her commentary was widely criticized.{{cite web|last=cl_admin|date=11 March 2014|title=ICYMI: Belly Dancing When You're a White Woman|url=http://www.colorlines.com/articles/icymi-belly-dancing-when-youre-white-woman|publisher=}}{{cite web|last=Friedersdorf|first=Conor|title=In Praise of Polyglot Culture—and Multicultural Belly Dancing|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/03/in-praise-of-polyglot-culture-and-multicultural-belly-dancing/284290/|website=The Atlantic| date=7 March 2014 |publisher=}} In response to these criticisms, Jarrar wrote a follow-up to her piece, titled "I Still Can't Stand White Bellydancers".{{Cite web |date=19 March 2014 |title=I still can't stand white belly dancers |url=http://www.salon.com/2014/03/18/i_still_cant_stand_white_belly_dancers/ |access-date=2015-09-30}} Novelist and comics writer G. Willow Wilson wrote in defense of Jarrar, saying that white women who belly dance "are exercising considerable privilege."{{Cite web |last=Buchanan |first=Matthew |title=In Defense (Sort Of) Of Randa Jarrar |url=http://gwillowwilson.com/post/78869250415/in-defense-sort-of-of-randa-jarrar |access-date=2015-09-30 |website=gwillowwilson.com}}

Jarrar called for the literary community to "DEMAND that white editors resign" saying that the community did not "have to wait for them to fuck up" in 2018.{{cite web |title=Controversial Professor Wants White Editors to Quit |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2018/07/30/controversial-professor-wants-white-editors-quit?mc_cid=374665bf85&mc_eid=1da1a6daf3}}{{cite web |title=Randa Jarrar, Fresno State professor, demands white editors 'hand over positions of power' - Washington Times |url=https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jul/26/randa-jarrar-fresno-state-professor-demands-white-/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180727015426/https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jul/26/randa-jarrar-fresno-state-professor-demands-white-/ |archive-date=2018-07-27 |website=www.washingtontimes.com}} This was in response to a poem published in The Nation that made what commentators perceived as racist attempts at black vernacular.{{Cite news|url=https://twitter.com/accommodatingly/status/1021831421302919169|title=Stephanie Burt on Twitter|work=Twitter|access-date=2018-09-28|language=en}}

In 2021, Jarrar published a memoir, Love Is an Ex-Country.

Awards

2004 Million Writers Award for best short story online{{Cite web|url=http://www.storysouth.com/millionwriters/millionwriters2004.html|title=storySouth Million Writers Award|website=www.storysouth.com|access-date=2016-03-25}}
2007 Hopwood Award for Best Novel{{cite web|url=https://news.umich.edu/hopwood-writing-awards-presented-to-34/|title=Hopwood writing awards presented to 34 |date=20 April 2007 |publisher=Lsa.umich.edu}}
2009 Arab American Book Award[http://www.arabamericanmuseum.org/2009bookawardwinners 2009 Arab American Book Award Winners], Retrieved April 23, 2018
2016 Story Prize Spotlight Award{{Cite web|url=https://thestoryprize-website.squarespace.com/spotlight-award-winner|title=Spotlight Award Winner|website=The Story Prize|language=en-US|access-date=2017-01-31}}The Story Prize, 2016, [http://thestoryprize.org/spotlight-award-winner/ THE 2016 SPOTLIGHT AWARD WINNER: Randa Jarrar, Him, Me, Muhammad Ali (Sarabande Books)], Retrieved April 23, 2018
2017 American Book AwardJefferson Beavers, August 9, 2017, Fresno State News (press release), [http://www.fresnostatenews.com/2017/08/09/professor-and-author-randa-jarrar-wins-american-book-award/ PROFESSOR AND AUTHOR RANDA JARRAR WINS AMERICAN BOOK AWARD], Retrieved April 23, 2018, "...won the Story Prize Spotlight Award..."
2017 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award
2020 Creative Capital Award

Bibliography

{{Cite book |last=Jarrar |first=Randa |title=A Map of Home: A Novel |title-link=A Map of Home |publisher=Other Press |year=2008 |isbn=9781590512722 |edition=hardcover 1st |author-mask=2}}
{{Cite book |last=Jarrar |first=Randa |title=Him, Me, Muhammad Ali |publisher=Sarabande Books |year=2016 |isbn=9781941411315 |author-mask=2}}
{{Cite book |last=Jarrar |first=Randa |title=Love Is an Ex-Country |publisher=Catapult |year=2021 |isbn=9781948226585 |author-mask=2}}

= Anthologies =

Words Without Borders: The World Through the Eyes of Writers, Alane Salierno Mason, Dedi Felman, Samantha Schnee (eds), Anchor Books, March 2007, {{ISBN|9781400079759}}
Beirut39 Bloomsbury 2010
Watchlist: 32 Short stories by persons of interest O/R Books 2016 {{ISBN|9781936787418}}

= Translations =

The Year of the Revolutionary New Bread-making Machine by Hassan Daoud, 2007. {{ISBN|9781846590269}}, Published by Telegram, Paperback
{{cite book| title=Qissat: short stories by Palestinian women| editor=Jo Glanville| publisher=Telegram| year= 2006| isbn= 9781846590122 }}