One Writer's Journey:
Meet Nada Shawish Dutka
When asked why do you write?, I feel like every author ever says, “I always wanted to write. I wrote as a kid. I was MEANT for this…”
Well, I’m that basic too. I really did write as a kid (and I read a lot), but that’s not why I write now or how I got here exactly, though a part of it.
I used to have terrible night terrors. My mom and dad, being the supportive parents that they were, but not knowing what to do about the night terrors, told me, “a bad dream is your imagination run amok.
But it’s YOUR imagination, which means you can imagine things differently too.”
My scary night terrors eventually became recurring dreams that I’d intentionally try to have. With practice, I was standing up to the evil robot in the labyrinth that I couldn’t ever escape, and surfing the tsunami wave to scoop up my little brother before it got to him, and saving the neighborhood dog from coyotes.
I reported back proudly to my parents the stories of my heroic feats in my own imagination.
Lest we psychoanalyze this part of my childhood, my parents encouraged me to write down these versions of my stories. So I did.
I wrote pages and pages of short stories that I took to school to show my teachers. My teachers were kind enough to be supportive too, and offered to laminate them. I proudly brought home my first books to put on our home bookshelf.
They sat on those shelves of my childhood home for a long time, and my journey back to writing stories for young readers wouldn’t come back around until my early thirties, during a particularly difficult time in my life.
What happened in the in-between?
Here’s a list of seemingly unrelated things about me on my winding path to becoming an author that I think brought me to this moment with you, dear reader:
- I’m a second degree blackbelt, and was competitive in Tae Kwon Do through a majority of my adolescence through high school.
- I was a pre-med student studying at The George Washington University, and decided to take English and Creative writing courses to be “a more interesting med school application.” Yeah, that didn’t work out. I spent more and more time in the library reading “The Canon” and “World Classics” than I did in my Organic Chemistry book. I graduated with a B.A. in English and Creative Writing, and didn’t look back.
- I spent a year as a contracted editor for governmental organizations, reviewing reports from the field, putting together grants, and reviewing resumes of some of the most interesting, well-accomplished people I’d ever seen. People who spoke 6 languages, had multiple degrees, and traveled extensively. I decided to go back to school after a year.
- I applied to a bunch of Master’s programs in English, some creative writing. I got into a few, but couldn’t afford them, despite some pleading back and forth with admissions. Michigan State offered me full tuition to read and write, and so I went!
- Loved Michigan, but looking back was too young for the accelerated Ph.D program I joined after my first year. I applied to complete my Master’s Degree, worked for Michigan State University Press in the meantime, and shortly after graduating, I headed back to Virginia to figure out the rest.
- I got a phone call from a relative who was a marketing lead heading up “brand marketing transformation” at a global humanitarian organization. He was looking for a “good writer”, and I might get to travel and help people too. I said yes.
- I spent the next six years learning and eventually leading marketing editorial at non-profits, traveling and writing to report and inspire donors from underserved communities. I worked with people who I think are still the most talented photographers, writers, marketers, field technicians and product developers during this time, with the biggest hearts. The perspective I gained in those six years stays with me.
- While I loved non-profit, I loved marketing too. I wanted to get better at it, and I still needed to pay school bills. I started on the path to being a digital marketer. I’ve since worked at Fortune-500 and with private equity, starting and growing social media programs in Financial Services, Healthcare, and Hospitality, and leading digital advertising campaigns.
- In the same time period, I married my husband, an aspiring marketer and entrepreneur, started and sold a family business with him, and we continue to learn and grow together on this crazy ride we’re on, from Virginia, with our dog Scout and eventually, our son!
- I started writing for young readers again when COVID-19 struck so many families, communities and businesses. People were dying. Our extended family was going through a lot of change. There were a lot of terrible things going on in the world and in politics. I missed doing something active and hands-on to help the way I did when I graduated from college when I was directly working in non-profit. I guess I didn’t know what to do, so I wrote to try to change it, at least in my imagination.
Today, I’m writing stories about growing up, inspired by my upbringing as the daughter of Palestinian and Hungarian immigrants to the United States.
I’ll debut with COOKIES AND CRESCENTS: AN EID STORY with Abrams Books. You can find it on shelves Spring 2025. It’s really a dream come true, and I’m excited to share this story about “looking up” with you.
See full spotlight review and preorder on Ink-a-Dink.com. Subscribe to our mailing list to be automatically entered to win a copy of Cookies and Crescents, Abrams Books for Young Readers, March 2025, $18.99, 9781419773327.
Genre/BISAC: Picture Book, Fiction, Family, Multigenerational, Holidays and Celebrations, EID, Religious, Muslim, Social Themes - Values and Virtues, Lifestyle, Food and Cooking, Country Life
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