Sorayya Khan's Blog

Please join us for the international book launch (virtual!) of We Take Our Cities with Us: A Memoir on April 6, 7:30pm EST. I'll be introduced by novelist (and teacher extraordinaire) Douglas Unger, and will be in conversation with Raza Rumi (with whom I share more than one city).

Register here: https://www.ithaca.edu/finger-lakes-e...



Have you ever wondered about the images that feed a book? I wrote Picture the Book: A Photo Essay of a Memoir for the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, which is sponsoring the event. You can read it here:
https://www.theedgemedia.org/picture-...

When I was writing the acknowledgments for We Take Our Cities with Us, I wondered if I might include the books that made mine possible. Everyone must wonder about this when they finish a book, right?! I began to make a list, but it was endless, so in the end, I decided those books knew who they were and left it at that. But Electric Lit gave me this opportunity to write about some of them here, and for that I'm grateful.

https://electricliterature.com/8-memoirs-by-women-writers-about-cross-cultural-identity-and-belonging/

"I’m 60 now. I have stretch marks to match my mother’s. Raised veins run like railroad crossings on the backs of my hands, although I wish they didn’t. My hair is grayer. Of course, now I wonder how much time I have left, whether it is the ten years my father knew he had. But I worry less about the years than the novels I need to write, like the one that began to take shape while I revised my memoir, We Take Our Cities with Us, now making its way into the world."

I wrote Writing for My Life, a (very) short essay about writing and aging that you can read here.
https://oldster.substack.com/p/writin...

The essay is included in Memoir Monday today, and received a shoutout from Cheryl Strayed when it was originally published in Sari Botton's brainchild, Oldster.

Tonight at 7pm (EST, Nov. 7) help us celebrate We Take Our Cities with Us in a virtual event where I'll be in conversation with Lily King.




Register in link.

https://www.booksandbooks.com/event/we-take-our-cities-with-us-a-virtual-evening-with-sorayya-khan-lily-king

My Book Tour for We Take Our Cities with Us: A Memoir starts next week. First ever. Thanks to the generosity of so many writers and booksellers. SF-CHI-ITH-MIA-PWM-BOS-CLE
Join us!!

Enter now to win a signed copy of We Take Our Cities with Us and see what happens! 10/07-11/06.

ENTER HERE

Publishers Weekly gave my book a lovely review.

"Elegant and richly remembered, this offers a poignant tribute to the complex beauty of inherited histories."

I love the last phrase, "complex beauty of inherited histories," which I think describes what I have tried to render in my story, especially when it comes to my mother's life. Take a look at the review.

NEW pub date is 11/07 (blame supply chain issues!) but preorders are most welcome.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780...

The arrival of my page proofs means We Take Our Cities with Us is that much closer to publication. But the proofs also make me think of all the memoirs I read on my writing journey, some of which are gathered on my shelves. When I wrote the acknowledgments, I thought of including the books most important to mine and quickly realized that the list would be endless....

One morning, I sat at my desk ready to tackle a perplexing question: How much of your novels are true?

A year later, I’d written the origin story for each novel and discovered that my pages were as much about the cities in my life as me.

Another surprise was that my Dutch mother–who’d recently died–was alive on almost every page. I made a list of my cities and hers, and started again.

In the next draft, Vienna bled into Maastricht and Lahore into Amsterdam, much as they did in the letters I’d inherited from my parents.

We Take Our Cities with Us is a memoir of loss and rediscovery in a globalized world.

Like all novels, it is true.

(Available in your bookstore in October 2022 and online for preorder now.)