Randa Jarrar

Jarrar has written nonfiction and fiction, publishing her first short story in the prestigious Ploughshares literary journal in Fall 2004. 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 two Lives 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.” Her second book, a 2016 collection of stories, won a PEN Oakland Award, a Story Prize Spotlight Award, and an American Book Award. 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. 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. Fresno State released a statement condemning her comments as critics called for her termination. 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?" 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. 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. Her commentary was widely criticized. In response to these criticisms, Jarrar wrote a follow-up to her piece, titled "I Still Can't Stand White Bellydancers". Novelist and comics writer G. Willow Wilson wrote in defense of Jarrar, saying that white women who belly dance "are exercising considerable privilege." 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. This was in response to a poem published in The Nation that made what commentators perceived as racist attempts at black vernacular. In 2021, Jarrar published a memoir, Love Is an Ex-Country.

• 2004 Million Writers Award for best short story online • 2007 Hopwood Award for Best Novel • 2009 Arab American Book Award • 2016 Story Prize Spotlight Award • 2017 American Book Award • 2017 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award • 2020 Creative Capital Award