Ali Eteraz to Address Opening Session of 2010 Wooster Forum

Author of Children of Dust to speak Tuesday, Sept. 21, in McGaw Chapel

WOOSTER, Ohio — Ali Eteraz, author of Children of Dust, will discuss his memoir at the opening session of the 2010 Wooster Forum on Tuesday night (Sept. 21) in McGaw Chapel (340 E. University St.). The event, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7:30 p.m.

Eteraz’s book, which was a summer reading assignment for first-year students at The College of Wooster and the recipient of a Nautilus Book Award in 2009, chronicles Eteraz’s journey from rural Pakistan, where he was born; to the American Bible Belt, where he relocated with his family; to the modern Middle East, where he candidly discusses the “weird run-ins” he had with people he used to know.

“The book traces my relationship with my parents and Islam, as well as what it’s like to be Pakistani in the modern world,” said Eteraz, a graduate of Emory University and Temple University’s Beasley School of Law. “I went back to Pakistan to trace my history and ran into people I used to know, including some who were spouting pro-Taliban, pro-militant rhetoric and antagonizing me about it because now in their eyes I was an American. I came back to the United States and 9/11 occurred, and I again struggled with being a Muslim in this world where Islam was being so demonized.

Eteraz said his memoir is not intended to be an informative or political book about Islam. “I simply wanted to write a book that authentically chronicled things that occurred in my life without any editorializing — how a boy growing up in conservative environment goes through all these conflicts,” he said. “It is a literary investigation of one’s history.”

Additional information about the Wooster Forum is available by phone (330-263-2132) or e-mail.