Ghassan Zeineddine
Ghassan Zeineddine was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in the Middle East. He is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Oberlin College, and co-editor of the creative nonfiction anthology Hadha Baladuna: Arab American Narratives of Boundary and Belonging. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Ohio.
Praise
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The stories in Dearborn—by turns hilarious and heartbreaking, astute and absurd—capture such a vital, underspoken aspect of the Arab-American experience, that sense of being not quite from the place you love and not quite loved by the place you’re from. Ghassan Zeineddine has a talent for those very small details of Arab life in a place like Dearborn—the generational fatalism, the converted garage living room, the unlikely mash-up of cuisines at the neighborhood restaurant. These are wonderful stories from an exciting new name in Arab-American literature.
—Omar El Akkad, author of What Strange Paradise
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Dearborn is one of the funniest, truest, and most heartfelt books I have ever read. Zeineddine writes with so much grace and understanding, so much love and compassion, so much mastery that these stories will become part of who you are.
—Morgan Talty, bestselling author of Night of the Living Rez
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These stories will stay with you for weeks and years after you’ve finished them, making you again laugh, wonder, and rage. Dearborn is masterful, gentle, wild, and full of heart.
—Rivka Galchen, author of Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch
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At once urgent and timeless, the stories in Dearborn are searing and unflinching snapshots of an immigrant community struggling to carve out space for itself, to find home in unfamiliar territory. The unforgettable characters slash through stereotypes as they navigate heart-wrenching and absurd situations, all the while grappling with identity and intergenerational tensions. The world Zeineddine creates is filled with beauty, brutal realities, and humor. I couldn’t put it down.
—Zaina Arafat, author of You Exist Too Much