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See Something Say Something

Episode 8: Why Are Samosas In Every Single Book?

See Something Say Something

Ahmed Ali Akbar

Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality

4.8550 Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2016

⏱️ 50 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Youth Lit authors Hena Khan and Sara Farizan talk about writing young Pakistani and Iranian characters, and wonder why every single book set in South Asia includes samosas. Plus, they give Ahmed some writing advice and read from their own work. Hena shares an excerpt from her forthcoming novel "Amina's Voice," and Sara reads from "Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel".

Follow Hena at @henakhanbooks
Follow Sara at @SaraFarizan
Find a list of books recommended by Hena and Sara here.

Follow Ahmed at @radbrowndads.
Follow the show at @seesomething and facebook.com/seesomethingpodcast
Find more episodes at buzzfeed.com/seesomethingsaysomething
Email us at saysomething@buzzfeed.com.
Our music is by The Kominas. Follow them at @TheRealKominas and kominas.bandcamp.com

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey there, I'm Amadaluy Upber and this is See Something Say Something, the BuzzFeed podcast where we drink tea, tell stories, and talk about being Muslim in America.

0:09.4

This week we'll be talking to some authors about writing books for the young folk.

0:17.0

If you see something, you better, you better say something.

0:23.6

Nothing at all, nothing at all.

0:28.6

So this week our guests are Hinnah Khan.

0:33.6

She's a children's book and young adult author.

0:36.6

She's the author of its Ramadan Curious George, where Curious George celebrates Ramadan and learns about it from one of his friends.

0:44.6

And the man in the yellow hat gets a yellow fez as an Eve present.

0:48.6

It's amazing.

0:49.6

And she's also the author of Amna's Voice, which is a novel coming out next year. Hi, Hannah. Hi. Thanks for

0:56.3

having me on your show. That's good to have you. And we have Sarah Farzan, whose young adult

1:01.7

novels, If You Could Be Mine and Tell Me Again, how a crush should feel, are queer coming

1:07.3

of age stories set in Iran and America. Hi, Sarah. Welcome. Hi, it's great to be here.

1:13.4

So excited. We're so excited to have you. First, I'm going to ask Hina and Sarah to read

1:23.7

short excerpts from their writing. Then we're going to do See Something, Say Something,

1:27.9

and play a quick round of halal or not.

1:30.4

And then finally, we'll talk about their books.

1:32.6

They'll give me some writing advice.

1:34.3

And of course, as always, we'll talk about representation.

1:37.7

Also, off-air, I asked them to suggest some books for young readers,

1:41.9

which I wrote up into a post.

1:46.7

You can find that on our see-something,

...

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