Palestine United States

Our Arab

Name: Our Arab
ISBN: 978-0316612623

by Zaina Arafat

Identity & Belonging Non-Fiction Memoir Essays Political Writing 2026

Summary

What does it mean to belong to a homeland you may never fully know? In this moving collection of essays, Palestinian-American writer Zaina Arafat explores the complexities of diaspora, inherited memory, and the longing for home. Moving between Nablus, Amman, the Appalachian Mountains, and Manhattan, she weaves together her family’s history, her experiences of identity and motherhood, and the pain of watching Palestine from afar. With tenderness, anger, and sharp insight, Arafat examines what it means to preserve a culture across generations while confronting displacement, erasure, and the shifting meaning of belonging. Our Arab is both an intimate family portrait and a powerful meditation on what it means to be Palestinian today.

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About the author

Zaina Arafat

Zaina Arafat is a Palestinian-American writer and journalist whose work explores identity, displacement, sexuality, and belonging. Her debut novel, You Exist Too Much, was published in 2020 and won the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Fiction. Her writing has appeared in prominent publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times, Granta, The Believer, and Harper’s Bazaar. Arafat has received fellowships from the Hawthornden Foundation and Jack Jones Literary Arts, and was named a Champion of Pride by The Advocate. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and an MA from Columbia University. She teaches writing at Hunter College and has also taught at Barnard College. Her work frequently examines the intersections of Arab identity, queerness, family, and the search for home. She lives in New York with her family.

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Details

Published: 2026
Author: Zaina Arafat

Our Arab

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