JAS Presents “The Talk” Writing an Arab American Female Bildungsroman : An Interview with Aisha Abdel Gawad

Abstract In this interview, conducted in August 2024, author Aisha Abdel Gawad discusses her debut novel, Between Two Moons (2023). Gawad describes the narrative depiction of the surveillance-induced paranoia plaguing Bay Ridge’s Arab American community and how the novel further complicates its adolescent heroines’ psychological and relational maturity with cultural surveillance, or “the double gaze.” The interview explores gendered shame, silence, and healing, as well as structural trauma and the consequent disillusionment with the model-minority myth. It also sheds light on the importance of creating nuanced representations of the Arab American female identity and the mental toll of writing in the age of digital surveillance.