On episode 21 of My American Meltingpot, listen in on my conversation with author, Laila Lalami. Laila is the author of the book, The Other Americans, our fall book club pick in the My American Meltingpot book club. She is also the author of three other award-winning novels including, The Moor’s Account and Secret Son. A native of Morocco, Laila is a professor of creative writing at the University of California Riverside.
The Other Americans begins with the mysterious death of a Moroccan immigrant, but is so much more than a murder mystery or a thriller. A perfect fit for the MAMP book club, The Other Americans is a rumination on family, belonging, love and who gets to call America home. It is so good, and in this episode we get to hear what inspired Laila to write the book, how she got in the headspace of the rainbow coalition of characters that narrate the story, and why she had to decolonize her own language in order to find her true writing voice.
The Meltingpot Minute
The Meltingpot Minute on episode 21 is about truth telling on Thanksgiving. November is Native American History Month and Turkey Day is only 27 days away, which means folks should be preparing, not just for a big feast, but also for the opportunity to educate themselves and the young people in their lives about the Native American experience. On the episode, I talk about different ways to incorporate truth telling about Native Americans into one’s Thanksgiving holiday, including reading books that center the Native American experience, instead of European pilgrims. Here is a great list of books for young people about Native Americans that can be shared to begin the process of truth telling.
Resources from the Show
To follow Laila Lalami’s career and to find her social media handles, visit her website at LailaLalami.com
To follow the National Book Awards to see if The Other Americans takes home the prize on November 20, 2019, check the website.
During the episode we discuss Laila’s previous book, The Moor’s Account, which is a fictionalized account of the life of Estebanico, an enslaved Moroccan man who travelled with the Spanish in a doomed expedition to the southern United States. Laila said he’s often only a footnote in history books, so she decided to give him a voice through fiction. Here’s an interesting article that explains a bit more about who Estebanico was and his importance to the American Southwest.
(Photos courtesy of the author)
