Conversation with Malaka Gharib

In my Multicultural American Literature course this semester, we are reading Malaka Gharib’s graphic memoir I Was Their American Dream. As I was constructing my syllabus for the course, I was looking for graphic memoirs, and I came across Gharib’s book. I scanned a few pages on Amazon and though, “This is great.” So, I ordered it, read it, and assigned it for the course. I reached out to see if Gharib would be able to Zoom into my class and speak with us about her book. She was unable to do that, but she graciously agreed to chat with me about her work. This post is the conversation I had with Gharib about I Was Their American Dream.

During our conversation, Gharib and I talked about a myriad of topics ranging from the importance of graphic memoirs to the the various themes that occur throughout her book from her search for her identity to the similarities between cultures and individuals. One of the things that stands out to me from our discussion was the interactive aspects of I Was Their American Dream. I’ve read graphic memoirs with interactive elements, and when I asked Gharib about her incorporation of flash cards a reader could cut out, a page a reader could cut out to make a small zine, and paper doll Malaka Gharib’s that a reader could cut out and dress, her answer really made me think. She said that these elements were things that she did when younger and that they, specifically…