Nora Lester Murad is a writer, educator, and activist. Born and raised in a Jewish-American family, she later married a Muslim-Palestinian and raised three daughters in the West Bank.
Murad is co-author of Rest in My Shade: A Poem About Roots, and editor of the book I Found Myself in Palestine: Stories of Love and Renewal From Around the Globe.
In Murad's new middle-grade book, Ida in the Middle, a girl named Ida eats a magic olive and finds herself back in her family’s village in Palestine.
"She's just like any other kid ... a kid that I hope all readers can identify with," Murad said.
But as a daughter of Muslim-Palestinian immigrants, Ida experiences anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia.
"She's trying to figure out what it means to be a person growing into an unjust society in the United States and one who is also from a society that's experiencing a lot of injustice," Murad said.
Murad will be a keynote presenter at the Diverse Texts Conference at Bemidji State University in July. The conference is aimed at K-12 educators and registration is currently open.
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