Bridging Cultures: A Conversation with Diana Abu-Jaber

Art Works Podcast

We’re closing out Arab-American Heritage Month with author Diana Abu-Jaber who discusses growing up with an Irish-American mother and a Jordanian father who never felt at home in the US, the lively tensions between cultures, and the centrality of this to her writing. We discuss her two memoirs, "The Language of Baklava" and "Life Without a Recipe." She describes the impact her father and grandmother had on her life and how their contrasting personalities were reflected in their approaches to food: Diana's father was a passionate and improvisational cook, while her grandmother was a precise baker. Abu-Jaber discusses the challenges of writing memoirs, the emotional risks involved in sharing personal stories, and how she navigated the difficult topic of her larger-than-life’s father's death. We turn to a discussion of her latest novel, "Fencing with the King," and Diana reveals that the story was inspired by her father's experience of fencing with King Hussein of Jordan and her family's history of displacement. Diana reflects on the growth of Arab-American literature and the increasing prominence of Arab-American writers in contemporary culture. We also discuss the similarities between cooking and writing and how food, like literature, can serve as a bridge between cultures