Zaina gay

Her unnamed protagonist is a young bisexual Palestinian-American with a penchant for unattainable women. She stands in the centre of various Venn diagrams of identity; never fitting fully into one side or the other, and feeling uncomfortable in the space in-between.

We watch as she attempts multiple relationships, grapples with addiction and misplaced desire, and battles with her unaccepting mother. Politics and romance go hand in hand for Arafat. And I wanted to locate that in a queer narrative. You Exist Too Much deals in doubleness in terms of sexuality, race, religion and love.

How did the idea of doubleness grow for you? Zaina Arafat: The idea of doubleness as a core narrative idea comes from this in-between status of the character. I found myself interested zaina gay the ways a person can embody contradictions. I think it can be a very confusing, alienating place to exist, this space of double.

Why did you choose to focus on this relationship? It can shape your attachments going forwards. So much of these unrelenting, painful, unrequited romances are related to her relationship with her mother. Her mother suggests that as her daughter is bi, she could choose to be with a man, and is doing the family a disservice by being with a woman.

Zaina Arafat: Yeah. Why does the protagonist have no name? Zaina Arafat: I think it spoke to the idea of existing too much. As a Palestinian-American writer, do you feel a certain expectation or pressure to represent a particular voice? Zaina Arafat: Initially, I did feel the weight of that expectation.

I felt that I was being restricted to writing about politics zaina gay the occupation and the ongoing refugee crisis and conflict — and I did that for some time — and then I felt like Arabs, and Palestinians specifically, were being reduced to their politics. A way to subvert that dominant narrative of Palestinians is to show a human story where the character happens to be Palestinian.

There was an effort to subvert the narrative and create a story outside of the typical frame that you get, and to three-dimensionalise Palestinians with longings and vulnerabilities that go beyond their politics.

Queer Arabs Taking Up Space: An Interview With Zaina Arafat

It felt like a love story could be more effective than a hundred op-eds. But at the same time, in the process I started to see how even love could be related to politics, and how your political reality can shape a lot of what it is that you seek in your romantic relationships.

Visibility is so essential to fighting the denial of queer women of colour. It validates a way of existing. What about lockdown : how have you been handling this period? I find that having anxious energy around me can be distracting, especially since I have so much of my own anxiety right now.

But blocking that helps, as does waiting until later in the day zaina gay check the news. If all you have is five minutes, then embrace those minutes. Also, be kind to yourself. Allow yourself that. Poetry : nightpoems.