# Amal Awad

> Writer • Director • Performer


## Posts

- [Upcoming re-release of "In My Past Life I was Cleopatra"](https://amalawad.com/2025/11/27/upcoming-rerelease-of-in-my-past-life-i-was-cleopatra/): In the last year, I've taken back the rights to my non-fiction books. I decided that I would release them all again – updated and connected by cover art. While each work has a particular focus, they are interconnected. Each book has my own story, experiences and explorations as the central thread. And each book has Palestine in it – a living, breathing world and its people.
- ['Creative Confessionals' Podcast: "When do you take time out or call it quits?"](https://amalawad.com/2021/11/17/when-do-you-take-time-out-or-call-it-quits-creative-confessionals-podcast/): In this episode, writer Amal Awad talks about the importance of understanding when a project or pathway is no longer sustainable, discussing  when you might decide to call it quits on something you once thought was a good idea. Also discussed is the importance of knowing when to take a break, as opposed to walking away altogether.
- [Desert Dreamings and Sheikh-Lit](https://amalawad.com/2021/04/01/desert-dreamings-and-sheikh-lit/): Powerful thighs. Golden eyes. Black robes. Swords. And fury. In romance fiction, it is not enough to have a set of muscle-toned thighs. They must also be powerful. Eyes cannot be brown, they must glow with the fire of a thousand suns. This is the world of desert dreaming. Of thinly disguised oil-rich kingdoms. Of exotic romance with the bad boys of the Arab world—ridiculously good-looking men with more money than sense.
- [Love Letter to a Book](https://amalawad.com/2021/03/22/love-letter-to-a-book/): In 2019, I was invited to present a love letter to a book at the Melbourne Writers Festival. Nawal El Saadawi’s seminal creative non-fiction book, Woman at Point Zero, edged out any competition. No other book I have read, which centres a flawed but authentic heroine, has affected me as deeply, a fact that played into my own understanding of how we talk about women, their issues and the cultural differences that influence how these manifest.  I cannot dilute the significance of the book’s exploration of an Arab woman’s life. This is a book that did not just point out injustice, it ripped it apart, exposing the bones of our broken humanity.
- [Sage Tea, Spices and Spaces](https://amalawad.com/2020/12/01/sage-tea-spices-and-spaces/): It was a random post on social media, but it unexpectedly moved me: a woman asking, for research purposes, what is something your mother can do that you cannot? There are many in my case, but my instant response was: I can’t cook like my mother. Soon followed a deeper realisation: I wish I could cook like my mother. I am a Third Culture Kid, belonging everywhere and nowhere, proficient in Arab- lish (that odd combination of Arabic and English that forms a new word). As an adult, I take some strange pleasure in this lack of belonging, and yet the moment I return to my parents’ house and smell the aroma of Arabic food, I feel like I am home.
- [My TedX Talk: "Moving beyond the token minority" (at Macquarie University)](https://amalawad.com/2019/09/20/my-tedx-talk-moving-beyond-the-token-minority-at-macquarie-university/): Popular culture —particularly film and TV—struggle to portray fictional worlds that reflect the diversity of the real one. In the push for more diverse storytelling, however, the task is not simply to tick boxes and represent minorities, but to normalise. More minority storytellers delivers a diversity of rich storytelling that goes beyond stereotypes and trauma tales.
- [Trauma Testaments and Creative Vertigo](https://amalawad.com/2019/07/01/trauma-testaments-and-creative-vertigo/): It was a couple of years after September 11. But the Australian media had its Muslim spokespeople, and I had no desire to be a mouthpiece in this excruciating moment. So in my debut mainstream piece, I didn’t write about being Muslim in an increasingly Islamophobic world. I wrote of my struggles to transform the high of graduating with a challenging degree into a meaningful career, one where the pile of rejection letters grew so thick I went from paper clip to bulldog. 
- [The Ongoing Threat of Minorities](https://amalawad.com/2019/03/19/the-ongoing-threat-of-minorities/): Ordinary life for minorities is a constant stream of, ‘Yeah, but …’ We are question marks, worries to be flagged. I have tried for many years to focus on a way forward. I loathe the idea of Muslims, or anyone from a minority, feeling that their worth is tied solely to whether or not they are a threat, to how they can peacefully present themselves to a society that doesn’t go to any pains to disguise its hatred. But sometimes this feels like an impossible task.
- [12 September 2001: Amal Awad reflects on the aftermath of 9/11](https://amalawad.com/2017/05/30/12-september-2001-amal-awad-reflects-on-her-experiences-in-the-aftermath-of-9-11/): Growing up as part of an ethnic minority group in any society has its challenges. But it’s difficult to imagine the backlash those in Muslim communities have endured and continue to face in the wake of terror attacks carried out by Islamic groups. In her book,  Beyond Veiled Clichés, Muslim Australian author Amal Awad focuses on the lives of Arab women, revealing the similarities and differences of their daily experiences.

## Pages

- [SERVICES](https://amalawad.com/services/): Amal works with authors, screenwriters, producers, actors, and other creatives, offering a combination of craft expertise, industry awareness, and practical guidance.
- [By Topic](https://amalawad.com/by-topic/): By Topic
- [SHOP](https://amalawad.com/shop/): Amal is the author of eight books, across fiction and non-fiction. Her novels include Courting Samira (2011), This is How You Get Better (2015), The Things We See in the Light (2021), and Bitter & Sweet (2023). Her non-fiction titles—The Incidental Muslim (2014), Beyond Veiled Clichés: The Real Lives of Arab Women (2017), Fridays With My Folks – Stories on Ageing, Illness and Life (2019), and In My Past Life I was Cleopatra (2021)—reflect her ongoing interest in personal storytelling, community, and the complexities of everyday life.
- [Bitter & Sweet](https://amalawad.com/books/bitter-and-sweet/): “Awad is a master of culinary literature [and] has created an exquisite, character-filled novel with all the paradoxes of a woman we might encounter in real life but rarely read about in the pages of a book.”—The Sydney Morning Herald
- [This Is How You Get Better](https://amalawad.com/books/this-is-how-you-get-better/): Abdel-Aziz Family Series #2. 'Amal Awad brings her characteristic intelligence and warmth to this tale of a lonely young woman trying to avoid love while searching for her place in the world. Lara is the best kind of heroine – gritty, funny, and full of heart.'—Ruby Hamad
- [The Things We See in the Light](https://amalawad.com/books/the-things-we-see-in-the-light/): Abdel-Aziz Family Series #1. ‘The Things We See in the Light is as warm and enveloping as the rich chocolate and hot Turkish coffee that suffuse it … In the tradition of great women’s fiction writers such as Monica McInerney and Deborah Rodriguez, The Things We See in the Light is heartwarming and compelling. Sahar will pull you in with her story of growth, empowerment and new friendship, including a touch of romance.’—Books & Publishing
- [The Incidental Muslim: Undiluted Perspectives on Life, Love, and Pop Culture](https://amalawad.com/books/the-incidental-muslim/): "The Incidental Muslim" is a collection of columns and short essays written by Awad that have been published in various publications previously. This collection of musings, organised into sections such as: Career Woman; Body and the veil; Religion and identity; and The happiness delusion, explore Awad’s experiences, opinions and values. They make for interesting reading, and expand on the ideas of being Muslim in Australia.—SamReads Blog
- [Fridays With My Folks](https://amalawad.com/books/fridays-with-my-folks/): “Ageing, failing health and the looming reality of once-distant death are not exactly the most cheering of subjects, but Amal Awad makes it an engaging, reflective and salutary read … A snapshot of things as they are now, and a personal, poignant tale.”—The Age
- [In My Past Life I was Cleopatra](https://amalawad.com/books/in-my-past-life-i-was-cleopatra/): “Amal’s forays into woo woo land are hilarious and enlightening. Above all, they are imbued with a respectful open-mindedness and cultural empathy derived from lived experience of having one’s beliefs constantly tested.”—Alice Pung, author of Unpolished Gem
- [Courting Samira](https://amalawad.com/books/courting-samira/): Abdel-Aziz Family Series #1. "A wry, endearing Bridget Jones set in Sydney's Muslim community… Awad warmly displays the formal propriety of Arab Muslim courtship while still highlighting the humor of it all, along with an amused appreciation of its parallels to the Regency world of Jane Austen."—BookPage
- [Privacy Policy](https://amalawad.com/privacy-policy/): Who we are Our website address is: https://amalawad.com. Comments Visitors leave an IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. This will be passed on to Google, which this site relies on for indexing, stats, and spam protection on the contact page and other software this site uses to function. This is how the Internet works these days. Embedded content from other websites Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites […]
- [Amal Awad — Writer • Director • Performer](https://amalawad.com/): Amal Awad is a Palestinian-Australian writer, director and performer whose work explores culture, identity and the stories we tell about ourselves. 
- [Beyond Veiled Clichés: The Real Lives of Arab Women](https://amalawad.com/books/beyond-veiled-cliches-the-real-lives-of-arab-women/): “…Awad reminds us there is much more to Arab women than both Islam and reductive western cliches.”—The Sydney Morning Herald
- [About Amal Awad](https://amalawad.com/about-amal/): Amal Awad is a Palestinian-Australian writer, director and performer whose work explores culture, identity and the stories we tell about ourselves. 
- [Contact Amal Awad](https://amalawad.com/contact/): Amal Awad is a Palestinian-Australian writer, director and performer whose work explores culture, identity and the stories we tell about ourselves.
- [The Creative's Compass Card Deck](https://amalawad.com/creative-card-deck/): The Creative's Compass Oracle is a beautiful and powerful deck of 80 cards, featuring colourful yet minimalistic mandala artwork by Zeina Iiali. This deck was designed as a navigation tool for creatives by Amal Awad, a writer and creative professional.  You can use it for daily insight into your life, as flashcards for quick insights, or to break through blockages.
- [Books by Amal Awad](https://amalawad.com/books/): Amal Awad is the author of eight books, across fiction and non-fiction. Her novels include Courting Samira (2011), This is How You Get Better (2015), The Things We See in the Light (2021), and Bitter & Sweet (2023). Her non-fiction titles—The Incidental Muslim (2014), Beyond Veiled Clichés: The Real Lives of Arab Women (2017), Fridays With My Folks – Stories on Ageing, Illness and Life (2019), and In My Past Life I was Cleopatra (2021)—reflect her ongoing interest in personal storytelling, community, and the complexities of everyday life.

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