Transcript available from website.

Show notes

• Randa has a PhD in sociology, and her thesis explored Islamophobia and racism from the perspective of perpetrators. She came up with the idea for When Michael Met Mina while completing fieldwork for the PhD.
• Randa read Francine Pascal’s Sweet Valley High and Ann M. Martin’s The Babysitters Club as a young girl, but it was Roald Dahl’s Matilda, John Marsden’s Tomorrow series, and Melina Marchetta’s Looking for Alibrandi that really had an impact on her writing and imagination.
• At the time of this interview, Randa was reading Domenico Losurdo’s Liberalism: A Counter-History and Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad.

- When asked what other Muslim Australian writers she recommends, Randa mentioned Amal Awad, Sarah Saleh and Osamah Sami’s Good Muslim Boy.

• Randa supports #LoveOzYA (and so do we).