Written by Teralyn Mitchell
All-American Muslim Girl is an upcoming Young Adult novel by Nadine Jolie Courtney about a sixteen-year-old girl who’s exploring her Islamic faith while dealing with every day teenage drama such as dating, parents, and the prom! Nadine was kind enough to answer questions from our contributor, Teralyn, about her upcoming novel, her writing process, and more!
You can find Nadine on Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads.
Can you tell our readers a little about you?
I live in Santa Monica, California, with my husband and young daughter, where I juggle motherhood with writing books, writing freelance articles, and travel advising. I’m also, yes, a Muslim—people are always shocked by this, since I have blonde hair, green eyes, and look fairly basic. I feel like the past several years of my life have been one giant PSA that Muslims are not a monolith and come in all ethnicities and every conceivable iteration!
What made you want to become a writer?
Honestly, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be a writer. I started reading very early (two, if my mother is to be believed) and I wrote my first poem when I was four. By the time I was seven or so, I’d written my first “novel” (about the trials and tribulations of sixteen year olds Kyle and Alexa, inspired by Sweet Valley High) and wrote a sequel to it a couple of years later. I’d bring the new chapters to school and pass them out to my friends. The only thing I’ve ever wanted to do was write!
Which book inspired you to begin writing?
So many books! I was a voracious reader as a kid: some of my favorites were Cheaper by the Dozen (and the sequel Belles on their Toes), the Anne of Green Gables series, anything with Ramona Quimby, and The Babysitters Club. I was also particularly obsessed with Sweet Valley High—hence those horribly cheesy Kyle and Alexa books.
All-American Muslim Girl has such an intriguing premise! Can you tell us a little about the book?
Thank you! The heart of the story is the main character, sixteen-year-old Allie Abraham, and her exploration of her Islamic faith. Allie starts as a teenager who knows next to nothing about her Islamic heritage, and over the course of the book, she’s compelled to learn and start practicing, falling more and more in love with Islam and the beauty of the religion. The book also explores her questions and doubt, as she struggles to grow and learn while still trying to do normal teenaged things: like date, standing up to her parents, making new friends, and going to prom.
Are there any secrets from the book (that aren’t in the blurb), you can share with your readers?
This is a fun question, I don’t know how much I can give away! I’ll just say that, even though Allie thinks she’s the only one who feels like they don’t fit, she comes to realize that many people around her are keeping secrets and hiding away parts of their true selves.
What kind of research did you do for All-American Muslim Girl?
Truly, the past thirty-nine years of my life have been research. With this book, even though it’s my lived experience, I was terrified of getting it wrong. Because there are so few Muslim stories out there, not only is there pressure to do your community justice and make sure you are not promoting any harmful or hurtful narratives, but there’s also an expectation that every Muslim story must be THE Muslim story, even though with 1.8 billion Muslims on the planet, that’s literally impossible. I tried to make it as singular as possible and put myself back in that mindset of first learning to pray, of the experience of feeling part of a community and feeling accepted for the very first time. I also interviewed my younger Muslim cousins, to find out what their day-to-day teenaged experiences are like. Because Allie has a variety of friends in her Muslim study group, I worked with Muslim friends from different backgrounds and levels of faith as I wrote, bouncing ideas and pages off of them. My motto for this book was First Do No Harm. If somebody told me they found even a single word potentially problematic or capable of being misconstrued, I changed it and worked on it. I hope that non-Muslim readers will adore this book, but it was critical for me that Muslims reading it felt the love coming through for them and our religion and understood that their reading experience was my priority. As young adult writers, we have responsibilities, I think, to both entertain and to shine a light, and I wanted to make sure that young readers came away from my book feeling seen and heard.
Do you write listening to music? If so, what music inspired or accompanied this current book?
Sometimes I feel like the only writer who doesn’t listen to music when they work! In a perfect world, my writing space is completely silent, with zero distractions. Of course, in real life, it rarely works out that way. (At this moment, my daughter is in the next room with the TV blaring the cartoon version of Aladdin.) There are several music references in the book, however, and I was particularly inspired by classic American rock that I love: Tom Petty, Pearl Jam, the Beach Boys, the Foo Fighters. I also listened to popular Arabic music like Amr Diab and Nancy Ajram.
What was the inspiration for this story?
I first came up with the idea of a character, kind of like me, named Allie Abraham about ten years ago. I wrote a few pages in a word document but quickly shelved it—I didn’t think anybody would be interested. My friend Patrice Yursik of Afrobella.com and my husband Erik were both supportive over the years, encouraging me to pick it back up again, though it wasn’t until the Muslim Ban that it was finally re-inspired. As I watched footage of the protesters at JFK airport, tears literally clouding my vision, I opened up the document and began writing.
What do you like to do when you are not writing?
My family and I love movies: we see absolutely everything, usually about two movies a week in the theaters! My main “day job” is as a travel writer, so traveling is also at the very top of the list. And one of my favorite things is simply going with my husband to the park on a Sunday afternoon to sip coffee and watch our daughter play soccer.
What is your favorite part of the writing process?
When it’s over? I kid! Probably that moment, usually mid-manuscript for me, when I’m completely in the zone, know my characters backwards and forwards, and eight hours fly by in about eight seconds because I’m so completely absorbed in the world I’ve created, with words pouring out of me and basically writing themselves.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Writing is like a muscle; the more you flex it, the stronger you’ll be.
What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Don’t be precious about your writing: get in there and write a little bit, something, anything, every single day. Some days it’ll be garbage. Some days it’ll be gold. It’s all part of the process. It’s important not to get defeated if you feel like you’re struggling sometimes; we all struggle. And remember: half the magic come together in the editing process!
Are you working on anything at the present you would like to share with us?
I’m working on another young adult novel, set partially in Georgia and partially in Jordan, all about Muslim joy, mothers and daughters, and the secrets we keep as we’re finding our way.
And one final question: do you have any book recommendations for us?
Ooh, I love this question! I highly recommend London Shah’s The Light at the Bottom of the World, a post-apocalypic YA novel about underwater London following a futuristic global catastrophe. It’s lush, beautifully-written, page-turning, and jaw-dropping, with a Muslim main character to root for in Leyla McQueen.
