Diana Abu-Jaber

She is the author of Crescent, a new book about a single Arab-American woman chef in Los Angeles. Her previous novel Arabian Jazz won the Oregon Book Award. Abu-Jaber grew up in America in a traditional Jordanian household. Abu-Jaber is a writer-in-residence at Portland State University.

Abu-Jaber's first novel "Arabian Jazz" is now out. It explores the lives of two sisters in upstate New York, the children a Jordanian father and an American mother.