Muslimness in Books for Young Readers: A Chat with A. M. Dassu

Summary

Persevering with our literary theme this season, in this episode Claudia Radiven and Chella Ward chat to A. M. Dassu about her books for young readers. Az is a children’s author of fiction and non-fiction, whose books include Fight Back (Tu Books, 2022) and Boy, Everywhere (Tu Books, 2021). Her books engage young readers with themes of migration, activism and political solidarity, and she often writes Muslim characters whose Muslimness is more than simply an aspect of their culture or heritage but plays an important role in their characterisation. We talked to her about her work for different age groups, about what it means to write Muslim characters with their own agency, and about the contexts in which children encounter Islamophobia and other racisms.

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Radio Reorient

This is Radio ReOrient: exploring the post-Western, reconnecting the Islamosphere. Every other Friday we feature conversations with thinkers, artists and community activists about things Islamicate and decolonial. Radio ReOrient is a part of the Critical Muslim Studies project, connecting and intersecting acts of epistemic disobedience and political re-imagination.

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