Lunch at Guantanamo


Randa Jarrar is a writer, memoirist, and comedian sharing her experience as a Muslim American born of Egyptian and Palestinian parents.

Artist Bio

Randa Jarrar’s newest book is a semi-satirical, fantastical novel set in 2045 Guantanamo Bay, inspired by and updating “The Penal Colony,” the short story by Franz Kafka. The book envisions a utopic queer future—one that offers its inhabitants peace, liberation, and justice.


Award Year
2020
Status

In Progress


2021 Artist Retreat Presentation

An Arab-American woman with short curly hair, wearing venus earrings, a bustier, and a black and white faux fur collar adjusts an invisible crown on her head, joyfully

Randa Jarrar

Los Angeles, CA

Randa Jarrar is a writer, memoirist, and comedian sharing her experience as a Muslim American born of Egyptian and Palestinian parents. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Bitch, Buzzfeed, The Utne Reader, Salon, The Offing, Guernica, The Rumpus, The Oxford American, Ploughshares, The Sun, and others. She is the author of the memoir, Love Is An Ex-Country. Her first book, the Arab American coming of age novel, A Map of Home, was published in seven languages and won a Hopwood Award and an Arab-American Book Award. Her book, Him, Me, Muhammad Ali, won an American Book Award, a PEN Oakland Award, and a Story Prize Spotlight Award. In 2010, she was named one of the most gifted writers of Arab origin under the age of 40. She is the translator of several Arabic short stories and a novel.