Background
Randa Jarrar was born in 1978 in Chicago to an Egyptian-Greek mother and Palestinian father. She grew up in Kuwait and Egypt.
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Randa Jarrar
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Education
Jarrar studied creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College, received Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, and Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan.
Career
Since then she has published short stories and essays, and she teaches creative writing in Fresno. After the Gulf War in 1991, her family moved back to the United States, living in New York City when she was 13. She has taught College Writing, Creative Writing, and Arab-American literature.
Randa Jarrar is the fiction and online editor for literary journal The Normal School, and spends her days teaching creative writing to both graduates and undergraduates.
“lieutenant’s a majority minority school,” she describes. They"re first generation college students.
Jarrar wrote an opinion piece called, which was published in Salon, 2014. In this piece, Jarrar said she felt that white women who take part in the art of bellydance are engaging in cultural appropriation and "brown face." Many bellydancers and nonbellydancers alike were outraged by her statement, including University of California, Los Angeles professor Eugene Volokh.
Achievements
Awards
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Hopwood Award; Arab American Book Award; American Book award 2004 Million Writers Award for best short story online 2007 Hopwood Award for Best Novel 2008 Chamberlain Prize 2009 Arab American Book Award 2010 Beirut 39 (Best 39 writers of Arab origin under 40) 2015 Lannan Foundation The Hopwood are a major scholarship program at the University of Michigan, founded by Avery Hopwood.; The Arab American Book Award was established in 2006 to celebrate and support the research of, and the written work of, Arab Americans and their culture.Hopwood Award; Arab American Book Award; American Book award 2004 Million Writers Award for best short story online 2007 Hopwood Award for Best Novel 2008 Chamberlain Prize 2009 Arab American Book Award 2010 Beirut 39 (Best 39 writers of Arab origin under 40) 2015 Lannan Foundation The Hopwood are a major scholarship program at the University of Michigan, founded by Avery Hopwood.; The Arab American Book Award was established in 2006 to celebrate and support the research of, and the written work of, Arab Americans and their culture.