Coming of Age: Growing Up Muslim in Australia

Description

Muslim people in Australia come from over seventy countries and represent a wide variety of cultural backgrounds and experiences. Yet we are constantly bombarded by media stories feeding one negative stereotype. What is it really like to grow up Muslim in Australia? In this book, famous and not-so-famous Muslim-Australians tell their stories in their own voices. The beard, the hijab, the migrant - these are all familiar images associated with Muslim people. But delve deeper and there are many other stories: the young female boxer entering the ring for her first professional bout; a ten-year-old boy who renounces religion; a young woman struggling to reconcile her sexual identity with her faith. These honest and heartfelt stories will resonate with all readers, providing different snapshots of Muslim life in Australia, dispelling myths and stereotypes, and above all celebrating diversity, achievement, courage and determination.

Amra Pajalic is a Melbourne-based author of Bosnian background. Her memoir Things Nobody Knows but Me will be published by Transit Lounge in May 2019. Memoir extracts have been published in Meet Me at the Intersection (Fremantle Press, 2018) and Rebellious Daughters (Venture Press, 2016). Her debut novel, The Good Daughter (Text Publishing, 2009), won the 2009 Melbourne Prize for Literature's Civic Choice Award, and she is also the author of a novel for children, Amir: Friend on Loan (Garratt Publishing, 2014). She works as a high school teacher and is completing a PhD in Creative Writing at La Trobe University. Her website is www.amrapajalic.com. Demet Divaroren was born in Adana, Turkey, and migrated to Australia with her family when she was six months old. She is the author of Living on Hope Street, which won a 2018 Victorian Premier's Literary Award and was shortlisted for a 2018 Prime Minister's Literary Award. Her writing has appeared in Griffith Review, The Age Epicure, The Big Issue, Island Magazine, From the Outer and Best Summer Stories. Demet appears as a panellist, guest speaker and workshop leader at literary festivals, universities and schools across Melbourne and teaches creative writing at Victoria Polytechnic. Her website is www.demetdivaroren.com. Amra and Demet are co-authors of the book What a Muslim Woman Looks Like, a government-funded publication.