AUTHOR

Carla Power

Politics & Social Sciences | Religion & Spirituality

After a childhood spent split between the Midwest and the Middle East and Asia, I grew up interested in the relationship of Muslim societies and the West. I went on to study and write about Islam and Muslim issues as a journalist. But it wasn't until I sat down with my old friend Sheikh Muhammad Akram Nadwi to read the Quran that I found myself really engaging with the surprising ways they converged and diverged. My friendship and studies with him became If The Oceans Were Ink, which was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and for the National Book Award. More recently, I’ve been working on Home, Land, Security, a book about journeys into—and out of violent extremist groups, out from One World, an imprint of Penguin Random House, in September, 2021. Having been raised moving around, I'm happy to continue doing so. I now live in England with my British husband and Brit-American kids, though I get back to the Midwest--and the Mid-East and Asia--as much as I can.