Shideh Etaat
Rana Joon and the One and Only Now
(Young adult, July, Atheneum)
“When her best friend dies suddenly, Rana enters the rap battle he dreamed of even though she’s terrified of public speaking; to get herself to the stage before her senior year ends, Rana will have to find the courage to speak her truth, all while navigating her grief, her sexuality, and her well-intentioned but dysfunctional immigrant Iranian family.”
Los Angeles. I had a few short stories and novel excerpts published in various anthologies of Iranian American writers. … was my way of coming back home, to a time and place that felt incredibly familiar and safe. all started with a short story I wrote in 2014 after I’d finished my first manuscript. … I came knocking, and when I came back to the story, because of everything I’d been through, I was a different person. … I reached out to another incredibly generous Iranian writer, Marjan Kamali, I’d met briefly at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. I queried her agent and mentioned her name; that got me to the top of the pile, I think. I ended up working with the assistant agent, Kim Perel. You read the manuscript so many times. Too many times. From working on edits with your agent so you can get it ready to pitch to working with editors and sending multiple drafts back and forth to copy edits. … Sometimes you just need some space to be able to fall in love with it again. You also have to almost have a delusional sense of confidence to not give up. You have to take the “nos” with a little bit of grace and trust that the one “yes” you need will come your way when the time is right. I think being less attached to the outcome helps things flow a little bit easier and faster. As soon as I let go of the idea of a book deal is when publishers started showing interest. I don’t think it was a coincidence. Writing is a spiritual act. I don’t know if anyone actually told me this or if I was smart enough to figure it out all on my own, but I really do believe it. I feel like stories and ideas come through me and it’s my job to stay open to them. I’m really excited for the book to be out this summer and to actually be able to engage with readers and not just have these characters and this world live inside my head.
