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Michael Mohammed Ahmad Michael Mohammed Ahmad i(A118218 works by)
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 7 y separately published work icon The Other Half of You Michael Mohammed Ahmad , Sydney : Hachette Australia , 2021 21519147 2021 single work novel

''I only ever asked you for one thing,' my father said, a quiver in his voice. 'Just this one thing.' It was as though I had smashed the Ten Commandments.
'Oh father,' I cried in Arabic, grovelling at his ankles while my mother and siblings looked on. 'The one thing you ask of me - is everything.'

'Bani Adam has known all his life what was expected of him. To marry the right kind of girl. To make the House of Adam proud.

'But Bani wanted more than this - he wanted to make his own choices. Being the first in his Australian Muslim family to go to university, he could see a different way.

'Years later, Bani will write his story to his son, Kahlil. Telling him of the choices that were made on his behalf and those that he made for himself. Of the hurt he caused and the heartache he carries. Of the mistakes he made and the lessons he learned.

'In this moving and timely novel, Michael Mohammed Ahmad balances the complexities of modern love with the demands of family, tradition and faith. The Other Half of You is the powerful, insightful and unforgettable new novel from the Miles Franklin shortlisted author of The Lebs.' (Publication summary)

1 It’s Shit to Be White Michael Mohammed Ahmad , 2020 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , Summer vol. 79 no. 4 2020;

'I didn’t invent the White Australia Policy. White people invented it. And they invented it to distinguish themselves from Aboriginals, Africans, Asians, Arabs and Pasifikas. And they didn’t invent it to distinguish themselves in the negative; only in the positive, with greater rights to the stolen land on which they gathered than the rest of us. And while White people knew that they were not literally the colour white—most of their kind were somewhere between pink and beige—they did not seem confused about the term, fully aware that it referred to them and taking great pride in their sense of superiority over anyone that was ‘not quite White’. White people took no offence in White’s metaphorical nature, no offence in White’s overgeneralisation, and they did not seek out any of their dictionaries to double-check White’s definition.' (Introduction)

1 10 y separately published work icon After Australia Michael Mohammed Ahmad (editor), South Melbourne : Affirm Press , 2020 18716926 2020 anthology short story

'Climate catastrophe, police brutality, white genocide, totalitarian rule and the erasure of black history provide the backdrop for stories of love, courage and hope. In this unflinching new anthology, eleven of Australia’s most daring writers of colour provide a glimpse of Australia in the year 2050. Edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad, awardwinning author of The Lebs. Featuring Ambelin Kwaymullina, Claire G. Coleman, Omar Sakr, Future D. Fidel, Karen Wyld, Sarah Ross, Zoya Patel, Michelle Law and Hannah Donnelly. Published in partnership with Diversity Arts Australia and Sweatshop Literacy Movement.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

1 Reel Bad Lebs Michael Mohammed Ahmad , 2019 single work essay
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 5 December no. 94 2019;
'Up until I was nine years old, my favourite film was Blood Sport. Frank Dux, who was played by Van Damme in the prime of his career, competed against the world’s best fighters in the underground martial arts tournament called the Kumite. Early in the film, a brown-skinned man in a traditional Saudi headdress named Hossein tries to force the white female lead, Janice, upstairs to his hotel room for an ‘interview’. When she refuses, Hossein raises his open hand to slap her. Fortunately, Frank Dux intervenes, grabbing Hossein’s arm and winning a bet against him, which spares the blonde-haired damsel from imminent physical and sexual assault. As a result, Frank gets the girl the consensual way – they take a friendly walk, making fun of Hossein as they meander, they have a romantic dinner and then they head back to Frank’s hotel room for a wholesome night of procreation.' (Introduction)
1 The Origin of Leb Michael Mohammed Ahmad , 2019 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Arab, Australian, Other : Stories on Race and Identity 2019; (p. 123-146)
1 Reading Malcolm X in Arab-Australia Michael Mohammed Ahmad , 2019 single work essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , Spring vol. 78 no. 3 2019; (p. 58-83)

'Sand nigger. I was 15 years old the first time I heard this racial slur. An Aussie with long brown hair and pasty white skin, who was drunk, screamed at me from across the road while I was walking to the local manoush shop for breakfast. It was December 2001 and I was studying at Punchbowl Boys High School-a scrawny second-gen Leb growing up in the ethnoslums of Sydney. Three months earlier, two airplanes hijacked by Muslim terrorists had crashed into the World Trade Centre. Twelve months earlier, Australian news media had been dominated by reports of 'Lebanese-Muslim' gang rapists plaguing Sydney's streets. And three years earlier, I had seen the first reports in Australian newspapers and on TV news networks about local 'Middle Eastern' and 'Muslim' thugs involved in drugs, murders, theft and drive-by shootings. However, despite what the news headlines were saying about people like me at the time, I wasn't interested in terrorism, sexual assault and organised crime. I was interested in reading. I spent my evenings and weekends consuming the great works of Faulkner, Dostoyevsky, Nabokov, Hemingway, Joyce, Flaubert, Shakespeare, Austen, Charlotte Bronte and Mary Shelley. My teachers assured me that I would find myself within the pages.'  (Publication abstract)

 

1 y separately published work icon The Big Black Thing : Chapter 2 Michael Mohammed Ahmad (editor), Winnie Siulolovao Dunn (editor), Ellen van Neerven (editor), Milperra : Sweatshop , 2018 15304027 2018 anthology poetry prose

'The Big Black Thing: Chapter. 2 is the second issue in a new series of prose and poetry by emerging and established writers from Indigenous, migrant and refugee backgrounds.'  (Publication summary)

1 [Extract] The Lebs Michael Mohammed Ahmad , 2018 extract novel (The Lebs)
— Appears in: Long Paddock , vol. 77 no. 3 2018;

'When Abu and X return, all six of us sit in a circle in the centre of the rehearsal studio, surrounded by the graffiti quotes on the walls. I try to forget that the quote about Muhammad is up there too, but to me it sticks out and throbs like a cold sore. Jo stands and slips her hands into her pockets. She’s put her casual voice back on, the one that makes her sound like a Black boy from Redfern, and she says, ‘So, yeah, um, hope you enjoyed lunch. Here’s what we’ve got planned for the afternoon . . .’ She instructs each of us to take one of the cameras she’s lined up and go out onto the plaza pretending to be a character from a movie or book or a story we’ve made up. She’d like us to film our character’s interactions with the community. I want to know what’s the point of this but it seems that every time I ask a question I reveal my ignorance and simply get a scoff or a wince or a sarcastic remark in return. I blame Punchbowl Boys – how uncivilised that place made me. If only I’d gone to a school in Newtown or in North Sydney, then I’d understand art. Maybe Jo wants video footage that explains how mundane interactions escalate into violence, which always seems to happen on the streets of Bankstown.' (Introduction)

1 Michael Mohammed Ahmad’s The Lebs Michael Mohammed Ahmad , 2018 extract novel (The Lebs)
— Appears in: Kill Your Darlings [Online] , March 2018;

'Michael Mohammed Ahmad’s confronting new novel The Lebs (Hachette Australia) is out this month. As far as Bani Adam is concerned, Punchbowl Boys is the arse end of the earth. Though he’s a Leb and they control the school, he is a romantic in a sea of hypermasculinity and soon this conflict will reach an unavoidable tipping point. Bani must come to terms with his place in this hostile, hopeless world, while dreaming of so much more.'  (Introduction)

1 12 y separately published work icon The Lebs Michael Mohammed Ahmad , Sydney : Hachette Australia , 2018 12178121 2018 single work novel young adult

''Bani Adam thinks he's better than us!' they say over and over until finally I shout back, 'Shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up, I have something to say!'

'They all go quiet and wait for me to explain myself, redeem myself, pull my shirt out, rejoin the pack. I hold their anticipation for three seconds, and then, while they're all ablaze, I say out loud, 'I do think I'm better.'

'Bani Adam is a student at Punchbowl Boys High School, which seems like the arse end of the earth, and the students don't seem to care. The Lebs control the school, and Bani feels at odds - a romantic in a sea of hyper-masculinity.

'Bani must come to terms with his place in a world of hostility and hopelessness - while dreaming of having so much more.'  (Publication summary)

1 1 y separately published work icon The Big Black Thing : Chapter 1 Michael Mohammed Ahmad (editor), Winnie Siulolovao Dunn (editor), Ellen van Neerven (editor), Penrith : Sweatshop , 2017 15361072 2017 anthology poetry

'The Big Black Thing: Chapter. 1 is the first issue in a new series of prose and poetry by emerging and established writers from Indigenous, migrant and refugee backgrounds.

'Featuring Peter Polites, Winnie Dunn, Stephen Pham, Shirley Le, Jason Gray, Maryam Azam, Louisa Badayala, Jessicca Mensah, Nitin Vengurlekar, Monikka Eliah, Socorro Cifuentes, lina Kastoumis, Ricky Tran, Alex Aditia, Masen Guerreiro, Teddy William Owuor, Hisham Mallah, Eteroma Hunt, Mohamed Lababidi, Nancy Huynh, Kyaw Kyaw Phyo, Kelvin Yu, Ali Haydar, Jessica Tran, Kane Harrington, Kiarna Evans, Mark Streeter, Courtney Miller, Hamani Tanginoa, Adina Aslett-Robertson, Shanae Hajsinger, Taylah Hansen, Mary Al-Nashy, Omar El-Ali, Dani Mejbel, Samer Mejbel, Gilbert Tran, Breeze Makiri, Hanane Elnajjar, Matati Hunt, Maryian Nagib and Idarosareen Sooalo.' (Publication summary)

 

1 No Toes Michael Mohammed Ahmad , 2017 single work short story
— Appears in: Meanjin , Spring vol. 76 no. 3 2017; (p. 50-55)
1 1 The Tribe Michael Mohammed Ahmad , Janice Muller , 2016 single work drama

'After seeing its acclaimed debut season at the 2015 Sydney Festival, we were keen to bring Urban Theatre Projects’ The Tribe from the streets of Sydney’s west into our own backyard in Surry Hills. Not figuratively either: it actually is a show for the intimacy of the humble back garden, and that’s where we’ll present it – in an assortment of Surry Hills backyards.

Performed by the inimitable Hazem Shammas (Mother Courage and Her Children, Scorched), this is a story of belonging, told by Bani as a small boy finding his way in a young country by recounting tales of an old country – and at the heart of it all, his love for his grandmother. She’s the core presence in Bani’s life, carrying all the truths of "The Tribe" – a small Muslim sect who fled to Australia from Lebanon. Hazem’s Bani is like a visionary child channelling a Bedouin storyteller – all amongst the Hills Hoists, paling fences, frangipani and jasmine of the Sydney yard. Don’t miss this very special event' (production summary).

1 Lebs and Punchbowl Prison Michael Mohammed Ahmad , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , November 2016;
1 Lebs and Lowies Michael Mohammed Ahmad , 2016 single work short story
— Appears in: Seizure [Online] , October 2016;
1 Bad Writer Michael Mohammed Ahmad , 2016 single work essay
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , October 2016; The Best Australian Essays 2017 2017; (p. 148-166)

'Two years ago the British Centre for Literary Translation invited me to Anhui Province in China to participate as a guest author in their annual translation program. I was asked to facilitate a creative writing workshop with the English-speaking participants in the program which would follow on from a workshop run by Vietnamese-Australian author of The Boat, Nam Le. For two hours I watched patiently and quietly as Nam worked with twenty aspirational writers and translators who had come to China from all over the (Western) world, including Australia, the United States, Ireland, Scotland and England. Nam wrote six random words up on a chalkboard, ‘shoes’, ‘man’, ‘mountain’, ‘love’, ‘fear’ and ‘fingers’, and then he told the participants to each write a short story or poem using these six words. I was disappointed to hear the writers in the group read back the stories they wrote, which all followed the same thread: A man wandered a mountain in a pair of shoes, searching for love and afraid he would find it. It did not occur to even one of them that a mountain could be in love with a man or a shoe could be afraid of a finger, or more importantly, that the mountain, the man, the shoes and the finger could all have a specific identity. After all, we were in view of China’s Sacred Yellow Mountain and with so much diversity in the room, participants had dirt on their shoes and under their fingernails from places no one else in the group could have imagined. It was at this point that I realised the universality of bad writing: the bad writing that this international collective of writers produced was no different from the bad writing I had dealt with as a writer, editor, publisher and teacher in Western Sydney for over fifteen years.' (Introduction)

1 y separately published work icon Punchbowl Boys True Stories Podcast S1 Ep3 : Punchbowl Boys Michael Mohammed Ahmad , Sydney : SBS , 2015 16962393 2015 single work single work autobiography podcast 'Welcome to the layered world of Punchbowl Boys during its dark periods in the late 90s. Told through the eyes of master storyteller Michael Mohammed Ahmad.' (Source: SBS True Stories website)
1 On Being Michael and Mohammed Michael Mohammed Ahmad , 2014 single work autobiography
— Appears in: Coming of Age : Growing Up Muslim in Australia 2014; (p. 10-27)
1 1 #Three Jerks Michael Mohammed Ahmad , 2014 single work drama

'It is Sydney 2000. Year of the Olympic Games. A string of gang rapes take place across the western suburbs. The perpetrators are identified as Muslims, Arabs, Middle-Easterns, Westies. Their victims are identified as Non-Muslim Aussie Pigs. The crimes divide Australia. A Leb, a Wog and a Bogan emerge. They are writers. They will tell their story. They don’t care that no one wants to hear it, because they are three jerks.' (Production summary)

2 9 y separately published work icon The Tribe Michael Mohammed Ahmad , Artarmon : Giramondo Publishing , 2014 7186026 2014 selected work novella (taught in 5 units)

'The Tribe is a collection of three novellas portraying significant aspects in the life of an extended Muslim Lebanese-Australian family with its roots in the suburb of Lakemba in Western Sydney.The first novella describes the family house, and the three generations who live, often in some discord, in its rooms; the second explores the marriage of the boy’s uncle, and the threatened appearance of an estranged branch of the family at the ceremony. The third rounds off the circle, describing the death of the family matriarch, the boy’s grandmother. Together they offer an intimate insight into a community negotiating the conflict between tradition and modernity, and the complex tribal affiliations of the extended family.' (Publisher's blurb)

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