Meet Mandy

We were lucky to catch up with Mandy recently and have shared our conversation below.

Mandy, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?

It can be so challenging to be optimistic these days, especially if you spend more than 30 seconds reading the news. I’m Palestinian, so I feel weariness with the state of the world in my bones. Every day, I wonder how the U.S. can continue funding the genocide of my people and manufacturing the bombs Israel uses to murder and maim hundreds of thousands of my people. I have a natural tendency toward optimism, but the past two years have really tested my ability to remain optimistic in the face of so much devastation.

But it’s here that I’ve leaned on what I’ve learned from my Palestinian kin. If my people in the homeland, especially those in Gaza, aren’t giving up hope, then we outside of Gaza have no right to give up hope on their behalf. If they can find reasons to try to survive, to keep on living despite all the odds stacked against them by the world’s most powerful imperial bullies, then who are we––who is anyone––to decide that all is lost and hope is a waste?

Like many indigenous peoples, we’re collectivists, which means that we value the well-being of all of us as a community. Where Western teachings advise filling your own cup before pouring into anyone else’s, we believe that if you have even a little bit, you have some to share. Palestinians embody mutual aid at its highest form, and seeing my people care for each other, especially amid conditions that no one should ever have to face, has given me hope in our survival. And knowing wholeheartedly that there will be Palestinians in the future fuels me on my own darkest days, despite how they pale in comparison to the genocide my people in the homeland are experiencing.

As a person from a collectivist culture, I try to embody that spirit of mutual aid in everything I do. I raise money for organizations like The Sameer Project and the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund. I do labor reporting to highlight workplace issues in my city and support unionization efforts. I led a campaign to ensure low-income seniors got to stay in their affordable living space despite a predatory “luxury” apartment developer’s attempts to kick them out. I write and create art that raises awareness about issues I care about, including Palestine, LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, and media literacy, and share my thoughts on these issues on social media to educate others.

I think the most pessimistic people are those who are actually doing the least to make the world a better place. Because when you start doing the work, in earnest, the ripple effects are undeniable––especially when they’re combined with the ripple effects of others. I’ve come to accept that I may never be rewarded for the work I do or even see the day when justice is truly the law of the land in my lifetime. Still, I believe those who come after me deserve better than what we have now, just as those who came before me believed the generations they didn’t live to see deserved better, too. And I’m willing to spend my one wild and precious life fighting for what’s right, and if that’s not optimism, I don’t know what is.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I’ve known I wanted to be a writer since I was 5 years old, and I’m proud to say I made it happen––though I took a circuitous route getting here.

While working on my English literature degree, I started writing for small, local publications to gain experience and earn a little money. This is how I found myself doing freelance journalism, which I began in 2009 and still do to this day. I’ve written everything from arts and entertainment to politics, from education to labor, from music to weddings, and more. Freelancing has allowed me to pursue my varied interests and engage with hundreds of fascinating people along the way.

Still, my true passion is creative writing, and I was devastated when I didn’t get into any of the MFA programs I applied to at the age of 23. I only applied for one cycle, although I later learned that many MFA candidates often have to apply for multiple cycles before being admitted, as the programs are highly competitive. I reasoned that instead of applying again, I should keep doing journalism while honing my craft on the creative side. I joined a couple of writing groups and took every in-person and online workshop I could through libraries, writing nonprofits, conferences, and more. Being able to self-direct my learning and write whatever I wanted across poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and journalism was more beneficial than a program where I might have been shoehorned into a single genre.

I’m proud to say all these writing skills I’ve worked so hard to develop over the years have served me well. My first book, Midwest Shreds: Skating Through America’s Heartland, was published by the Belt imprint of Arcadia Publishing in July 2024. Midwest Shreds is part cultural and regional history, part travelogue, and part memoir. I interviewed dozens of people for the book, which allowed me to apply my journalism training in a creative way.

My second book, We Had Mansions, is a poetry collection that was just released from Diode Editions. While I didn’t conduct interviews for We Had Mansions, I used archival research and news articles to tell the story of my Palestinian family’s exile and immigration to the U.S., eventually landing in Alabama’s Bible Belt, and tie that to the genocide, as well as my divorce and falling in love again. Several of the poems in the collection have won awards and appeared in prestigious literary magazines, including Electric Literature, Black Warrior Review, and AGNI, yet they remain accessible in language, and some even employ a humorous and sarcastic tone. I believe poetry should be accessible to everyday people, and that guiding principle is present throughout We Had Mansions.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The best writing advice I’ve ever received was to read as broadly and as much as possible. I read widely across genres and regularly seek out historically marginalized voices within each one. I especially love reading queer horror and history books about elements of the past that I was never taught in school. For several years, I’ve read more than 100 books per year, and I’m on track to hit 1500 books in my lifetime so far.

Even though I don’t write in every genre, I think it’s essential to read widely in terms of my self-education––not just to be a better writer by exploring what’s possible, but to be a better human. As Maya Angelou said, “When you know better, you do better,” so I couldn’t possibly read books like, for example, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander or The Hundred Years War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi, and not want to use what I’ve learned to work toward justice and share what I learned with others.

Another vital piece of writing advice I heard was in the John Green book, The Anthropocene Reviewed. He was paraphrasing the now-deceased children’s book writer Amy Krouse Rosenthal when he said, “Pay attention to what you pay attention to.” Meaning, follow your interests. So much writing advice, especially in the journalism world, tells you to find your niche, but to me, as a writer with ADHD, that’s always felt like pigeonholing myself. And anytime I feel pigeonholed, I get bored, and when I get bored, I’m not doing my best work. I think enthusiasm is one of the best ways to stave off burnout, so following my interests is essential for my writing career.

Perhaps the most important writing advice I can give is to stay curious. Besides all the terrible -isms and -phobias, like racism and homophobia, I think one of the worst things a person can be is world-weary. If you find yourself looking out at the world and thinking, “Is this all there is?” it’s a sign that you need to change your outlook. Change your attitude to orient yourself toward wonder and awe. Look at an everyday situation with a new perspective. Put yourself in places to have new experiences. Hell, if nothing else, go outside and find shapes in the clouds, or close your eyes and focus on the sounds around you. Inspiration is everywhere, but only if you train yourself toward curiosity.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

Both of my parents were, unfortunately, pretty messy people, rife with mental health issues, drug addiction, poverty, and a distressing lack of emotional intelligence, all of which affected me. To protect myself, I often locked myself in my room with a pile of books and journals and wiled away the hours reading and writing. Most of the time, they were happy to leave me be.

In a weird way, this is part of what made me a writer. Because my outer world was so chaotic, I developed a rich inner life and a love of the written word that has shaped me into who I am today. Reading and writing have always been a lifeline, an escape, and a way to imagine and create a better future for myself. Although I would not recommend their parenting style, it has undeniably shaped me. After undergoing many years of therapy, self-education, and self-reflection, I’ve learned to forgive them for their shortcomings and appreciate the person I’ve become, even though it hasn’t been an easy journey. While I certainly wish I could say their actions affected me in more positive ways, I think all I have survived has made me a more empathetic and understanding person. I now have the opportunity to use my healing in ways that enrich others, not just in my writing, but in the way I present myself in the world.

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