Author Interviews

WNDMG Author Interview: Seema Yasmin on her series Muslim Mavericks

By on April 8, 2026   /   Author Interviews, WNDMG   /   Leave a comment

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Author Interview – Seema Yasmin

I’m so excited to be able to introduce you to author Seema Yasmin today. We are going to be talking about the start of her new series, Muslim Mavericks, spotlighting actress and comedian Maysoon Zayid, and launching from Salaam Reads / Simon and Schuster Kids on February 10, 2026.

I am excited to discuss this series with Seema and encourage everyone to buy a copy for themselves and their classrooms and libraries.

 

About MAYSOON ZAYID, THE GIRL WHO CAN CAN:

Description taken from online:

From the prolific Pulitzer Prize–nominated Muslim reporter Dr. Seema Yasmin comes an exciting nonfiction chapter book about one of America’s first female Muslim comedians—Maysoon Zayid—the first in the riveting and inspirational Muslim Mavericks.

This is the story of the girl who could!

Maysoon Zayid was just a girl from New Jersey. She might have sometimes felt like she was in the shadow of her three older sisters, but in her dreams, she was Mimi—an amazing actress, comedian, and dancer! The only problem? People kept telling Maysoon her dreams were impossible!

Achieving her goals certainly wasn’t easy; as a Palestinian Muslim girl born with cerebral palsy, Maysoon faced all sorts of challenges—both physical and societal. But Maysoon didn’t dare give up. Instead, she followed her heart all the way to the screen and stage to become one of America’s first ever women Muslim comedians and an actress on her favorite TV show.

 

 

Interview with Seema:

I loved getting to talk to Seema about her new book and I know you will enjoy meeting her as well.

 

SSS: What a wonderful start to a series. Can you tell us why you picked Maysoon Zayid to be the first person to spotlight?

 

SY: I’ve been a big fan of Maysoon’s standup comedy and writing for a long time and once my agent, Lilly Ghahremani, and I had conceived of the Muslim Mavericks series and pitched it to Simon and Schuster, it was a no brainer to have Maysoon’s story launch the entire series. The way Maysoon uses her voice, her humor and humanity to connect with and move an audience is phenomenal. I’m excited for readers to get to know her.

SSS: How did you conduct your research for this book? Did you interview Maysoon and how was that? (I am assuming hilarious, just like her!)

SY: I had the privilege of interviewing Maysoon, watching her do standup comedy live in New York City, and spending hours researching her life story and calling it “work.” Being a writer is the best because you get to read and interview fascinating people for a living! Interviewing Maysoon was of course hilarious but it was also sobering and humbling; I was made aware of my ableism and how it shows up in my writing.

SSS: What surprised you most about Maysoon’s life?

SY: I loved learning about her mum and dad’s personalities and differing life philosophies. Maysoon’s dad said “Yes, you can can!” and her mum was perhaps ore pragmatic about life and the challenges her daughter would face. But both of them treated all of their kids equally.

 

SSS: How do you choose who to write about when you are planning this series out?

 

SY: I am spoiled for choice selecting iconic Muslims who are changing the world. The second volume in the series is about a legendary record-breaker who held a secret for most of his life. There are so many people to write about! As a doctor and artist myself, I want to include the breadth of Muslim changemakers, from vaccine scientists to dancers.

SSS: What is next for this series? Or rather, WHO?

 

SY: I can’t say just yet but watch this space!

Link to order here.

Thank you Seema for joining us- and I hope everyone gets a copy of this book!

 

About Seema Yasmin:

Seema Yasmin is an Emmy Award–winning journalist who was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, medical doctor, professor, and poet. She attended medical school at Cambridge University and worked as a disease detective for the US federal government’s Epidemic Intelligence Service. She currently teaches storytelling at Stanford University School of Medicine, and is a regular contributor to CNN, Self, and Scientific American, among others.

 

 

 

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When You’re Brave Enough: Interview with Author Rebecca Bendheim

By on April 6, 2026   /   Articles, Author Interviews   /   Leave a comment

I have such a great job where, not only do I get to read books before they come out, but I get to ask the author all about how the book came to be! I learned so much through my interview with Rebecca Bendheim, author of When You’re Brave Enough (due out April 7, 2026). 

About the Book

Hi Rebecca! I really enjoyed When You’re Brave Enough. This was a true coming-of-age story that addressed many things middle graders are dealing with: religion, sexuality, and friendship. I’m excited to dive in and learn more about how the book came to be. Can you please give us a brief summary of the book?

Thank you so much! When You’re Brave Enough is about introspective thirteen-year-old Lacey, who’s always had the same best friend, loud, super-enthusiastic Grace. When she finds out her family is moving Rhode Island before eighth grade, she hopes to reinvent herself and step into the spotlight on her own, so she’s ecstatic when she gets a lead role in the musical Bye Bye Birdie.

But then Lacey finds out about her new school’s longstanding, student-led tradition: the lead couple always kisses (for real!) in the final performance. Lacey’s role has two love interests, and suddenly she’s under a lot of pressure to decide. But what if she’d rather kiss the girl she has a duet with? As she prepares for her bat mitzvah and Grace plans a visit for the final performance, Lacey grapples with the concept of tradition, which ones are worth continuing, and what her perfect first kiss would look like if she were brave enough to listen to her heart.

Do you feel this book is more of a window, mirror, or both?

My biggest hope is that When You’re Brave Enough can be a mirror for queer kids and teens who are asking similar questions and grappling with similar pressures to Lacey. I read my first queer book when I was twenty, and it completely reframed my view of being a lesbian from worrying it would make my life difficult to seeing that being queer could open me up to true love and a more authentic, creative life.

While I wrote this book for LGBTQ+ kids and teens, I hope that anyone, regardless of identity, can enjoy it and get a window into one experience of a queer teen coming into her own. There are a lot of misconceptions about queer kids right now, and I hope this book shows people that they are, like all kids, working hard to figure out who they are and where they fit into their communities, and that they deserve support, love, agency, and patience as they make their way.

I loved how sexuality was shown as a fluid spectrum and how the protagonist was discovering where she was on it. What do you hope this story contributes to the landscape of LGBTQ+ literature?

I wanted this story to celebrate the importance of taking time to really sit with your inner voice and respect what it tells you. So many of my favorite middle grade books, such as The List of Things That Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead and Scar Like a River by Lisa Graff, are about a character who is hiding a secret from themselves because they’re in middle school, at the height of pressure to conform and be good, probably the hardest place on Earth to admit you are different. Fragments and memories come to the surface, clueing in the reader, but these characters try to push them away until they can’t anymore and must grapple with the truth. I wanted to contribute a lesbian version of this story and highlight Lacey’s coming out to herself as just as important, if not more important, than sharing who she is with the world.

 

About the Author

Me at Lacey’s age in my Bye Bye Birdie T-shirt. I still have the shirt, but no longer have the purple Uggs.

Do you see your preteen self in Lacey? Or any of the other characters?

Yes! Like Lacey, I was so confused when my friends started talking about crushes, not understanding that the complicated, yearning feelings I had for a girl in my theater group were just that. I felt behind my peers and desperate to have it all figured out.

I also see a lot of my younger self in Grace, since I was loud and silly as a middle schooler. I loved hiding in lockers and jumping out at people, singing terribly in school hallways, and dressing up in weird, mismatched costumes and wigs to walk to CVS with my best friend. There are parts of me in all my characters, and learning to love and understand them helps me do the same with myself.

What’s your connection to school productions? And why did you choose Bye, Bye Birdie?

I LOVE musical theater and was in Bye Bye Birdie twice growing up, once in fourth grade and once in sixth. I chose this show because of its emphasis on conformity and expectations; it’s set in the 1950s and centers around a group of poodle-skirt-clad teenage fangirls who are all obsessed with teen idol Conrad Birdie (AKA Elvis) and one girl, Kim, who is chosen for the “honor” of being Conrad’s last kiss before going to the army and is suddenly thrust into the spotlight. The start of Lacey’s journey mirrors Kim’s, as a new student facing pressure to kiss one of her co-leads onstage. But more importantly, as an author, I have to put my characters through the ringer so they can grow, and I thought this show about many, many girls obsessed with a boy would be the hardest one for Lacey to disrupt by being true to herself.

How did you come up with the idea of a closing night kiss?

During my fourth grade production of Bye Bye Birdie, the eighth graders who played Albert and Rosie actually did kiss in the final performance! I remember being terrified that I’d have to do that too, and what if I had a co-lead I didn’t want to kiss? I never got a lead role, so I thankfully didn’t have to worry about this, but the fear stayed with me and I loved seeing how it played out with Lacey’s story.

I love how this ended—I think it’s a great message for kids. Did you always plan the closing-night kiss ending how it did or did you play with various endings?

I always knew who Lacey’s first kiss would be, but I played with a few different versions of where and when, public or not public. When I thought of the current ending, I knew that was it. It felt so perfectly Lacey-and-_______. No spoilers!

 

Research/Writing

Tell us a little about your MFA thesis and how it impacted writing this book.

I wrote my critical thesis at Vermont College of Fine Arts on the impact of positive queer representation in middle grade fiction. Through this, I learned that my experience having my first crushes on girls from nine to eleven but not coming out until years later was normal. Most queer and trans kids realize they’re queer or trans by early adolescence, but middle school is also the time when they’re most likely to be inundated with negative messaging about being LGBTQ+. I also learned that a supportive adult or a positive queer role model can have a real impact on improving the mental health of an LGBTQ+ child, so I made sure to add characters who fill both these roles in the book. I wrote the first draft of When You’re Brave Enough in 2020 and kept going through years of revision and rejection by remembering the impact books like these can have if they get into the hands of a kid who needs them.

Are you more of a plotter or pantser?

A plotter! I usually start by coming up with one character or situation, and then I love the brainstorming phase where I get to think of a million ideas of how their story could unfold. In that phase, I often spend more time in the character’s world than in my own life. But as I write my (terrible) first draft, the characters usually decide they want to do something totally different than I had planned, and I have to go back and revise the outline. Still, I like having it there instead of a blank page!

I liked how there was a parallel with Anne Frank and her diary. When in your writing journey did you create the connection to The Diary of Anne Frank?

The Diary of Anne Frank wasn’t part of my first few drafts of the novel, but when I got a copy of it for my sixth grade students, I decided to re-read it. I was shocked to read the same part Lacey is shocked by, where Anne writes about kissing her best friend and being attracted to the women in her art history books. I realized that when I was in middle school, I read a version of Anne’s diary with many passages omitted, including this one. I wished I could have gone back and given my younger self the unedited, unabridged version. Instead, I gave it to Lacey.

What was the most difficult part in writing this book?

The hardest part was making Grace feel like a well-rounded, fully there character from two thousand miles away. Much of my revising focused on putting memories of Grace in places that made sense, adding her visit, and making the emails between Lacey and Grace come alive through video transcripts, photos of flowers, and even songs, which my audiobook narrator actually plays ukulele and sings in the audiobook!

What was something you didn’t expect that was super beneficial in writing/finishing/publishing this book?

I first wrote this novel in verse and changed it to prose for and revise and resubmit request with an editor. That editor, Jessica Anderson, wasn’t able to acquire the book, but I so appreciate her wise idea to take the emotional heart of each poem and build it into a short scene, adding more dialogue, setting description, and physicality for the characters. Now, when I’m struggling with a project, I write the scene as a poem, figure out the emotional heart that way, and then build it into a prose scene.

 

For Teachers

Are you doing school visits related to this book?

Yes! As a former middle school teacher, I love doing school visits, especially for grades 5-8. I’m doing two main formats right now. One is a presentation about emotional bravery that ends with a chance for students to make a promise to themselves of something they’d like to be emotionally brave enough to do. If they want, they can write it down on this five foot sign!

The other is a writing workshop where students write a poem describing how a certain emotion feels in their body and then use that poem to build out a scene. I also combined these in my most recent visit! My goal during visits is to add enough visuals and opportunities to participate that even the most distractable student (AKA my younger self) is locked in, thinking, and learning. I also love to speak at pride events or to GSAs!

 

How can we learn more about you?

You can find me on social media @rebeccabendheim or at my website rebeccabendheim.com!

Thank you for your time, Rebecca!

Thank you for these thoughtful questions and for spotlighting When You’re Brave Enough!

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Interview with Margaret Gurevich

By on March 19, 2026   /   Articles, Author Interviews   /   Leave a comment
Today, please author Margaret Gurevich to the Mixed-Up Files! Margaret’s latest MG novel, Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah, hailed by Kirkus as: “A loving, carefully delineated portrayal of growth,” is out now from Penguin Workshop. But first…

A Summary

It’s 1986, and 13-year-old Yasha Reznik doesn’t understand why his parents moved from their Russian community in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, to the suburbs of New Jersey. Sure, it may be their American Dream, but it’s not his. Yasha’s dream is to make it through his Bar Mitzvah, watch the New York Mets make it to the playoffs, and fit in at his new school.

But fitting in is harder than he thinks, when he’s one of only two Russian families in town; he even starts going by “Jake” instead of “Yasha.” The only person who seems to really get him is Bernie, his pal from the senior citizen home where Yasha is doing community service for his bar mitzvah project.

When Bernie says his dream is also to see the Mets win the World Series, Yasha knows that somehow, someway, he’s going to get those tickets–even if he doesn’t know his Torah portion yet, or why he feels alone even with his new “friends.”

Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah

MR: Welcome to the Mixed-Up Files, Margaret! Before we dive in, can you tell readers a bit about Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah?

MG: This book means so much to me as it’s based on some of my own experiences growing up as a Russian-Jewish-American in the 1980s. Yasha and his family emigrated from the former Soviet Union to Brighton Beach, New York. Eight years later, they move to the suburbs of New Jersey. While in New York, he lived in a community with many others who were Russian; in New Jersey, he is one of two in his grade. He struggles to fit in while planning for his Bar Mitzvah. He finds a friend in Bernie, a senior citizen he meets for his Bar Mitzvah project. They both love the Mets, and this propels Yasha to try and get tickets to the 1986 World Series.

Memories from Childhood

MR: Like Yasha, you emigrated to the United States from the former Soviet Union as a child. How was your experience similar to Yasha’s? How was it different?

MG: Yasha is a little older than I was. We moved to New Jersey when I was eight, and I was 10 in 1986. Yasha is 13. Also, while we lived in Brooklyn, we did not live in Brighton Beach, so the atmosphere was  different. I never had a Bat Mitzvah project or a “Bernie,” but I was very close to my grandfather and based some of Bernie on him.

The discrimination Yasha experiences is very much based on my own experiences. It took a long time  for me to accept the Russian part of me. I felt really “othered” because of that. Our love of the Mets is the same, and I remember watching (on TV) the Mets win the World Series in 1986 and all the hype around that. Like Yasha, my father’s brother and mother stayed behind in the former Soviet Union when my parents, sister, and I came to the United States. My mother’s parents came with us. So, there are many similarities.

But I feel Yasha’s story is universal. Anyone coming from another country or culture who is trying to fit in will be able to relate to his experiences and struggles with his parents and peers. Even if one did not come from another culture, everyone has felt left out, and I think that theme will resonate. (For more on Margaret’s emigration experience, check out her first-person Newsweek essay.)

Meet the Mets!

MR: Baseball is a huge part of Yasha’s story, particularly his love for the New York Mets. I know you’re a Mets fan, too. How did your love of baseball originate?

MG: To be honest, I’m not sure! It was not a big thing in my family. My parents were not very familiar with baseball. My dad loved soccer and hockey and then got into American football. Every summer, my sister and I went to the Catskills with my grandparents. There were many kids our age. All those kids were into the Mets, so I think that’s where it started. I learned about the sport and team from them. The Mets won the World Series in the fall of ’86, and when we went back to that same bungalow colony the summer of ‘87, everyone was still talking about the win like it was yesterday. So, it was Mets hype all over again.

Intergenerational Friendships

MR: Another important part of Yasha’s story is his friendship with Bernie, a resident of the Heavenly Skies retirement home whom Yasha met while working on his bar mitzvah project. Can you tell readers more about Yasha’s connection with Bernie? Also, what were you trying to say about intergenerational friendships?

MG: I think it’s so telling that the person Yasha connects with first is not in his own age group. Growing up, I loved hearing my grandparents tell me about their parents and what they went through. Even now, I remember that while their exact experiences differed from mine, there were universal moments–first love, loss of friends, loneliness, sibling connections, academic woes and successes, etc.–that resonated with me.

The school where I teach has many opportunities for students to connect with the town’s more senior residents, and it leaves both the seniors and teens feeling fulfilled. In terms of Bernie and Yasha, they are both lonely and have undergone similar family issues. They find hope and a friend in each other, and each help the other heal.

Margaret’s Amazin’ Bat Mitzvah

MR: Speaking of B’nai Mitzvahs, did you have one? If so, was it anything like Yasha’s?

MG: My Bat Mitzvah was close to Yasha’s date, albeit three years later. When I was that age, we were part of a conservative synagogue and women were not permitted to read from the Torah. So, I did not have a Torah portion like Yasha does. I did have to memorize prayers, though. My party was not in a Russian restaurant, and it had a mix of Jewish and American food. However, we did have a DJ who added some Russian songs into the party mix. The thing I remember most about my Bat Mitzvah was the fun, family, and friends. Two of my friends made a memory glass for me. It was a thing back then. They melted candle wax and put flowers and ribbons and things in it.

(For more books that feature B’nai Mitzvahs, check out this article from the Mixed-Up Files archives.)

The Importance of Jewish Books

MR: As a follow-up, Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah is a quintessentially Jewish book, which showcases Jewish joy. Why are Jewish books so important, especially now in our current political climate?

MG: There has been a big uptick in antisemitism in recent years. That is very sad and scary. I think it is important for everyone to see each other as human beings who have more commonalities than differences. If people who hate read Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah, they will hopefully find room in their heart to see humanity rather than whatever image or story they created in their minds about Jewish people as a whole.

Ain’t It Funny

MR: Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah is your second middle-grade novel. Ain’t it Funny, about an 11-year-old wannabe comic with OCD, came out in 2024. How will your experience as a previously published author affect your approach to launching and marketing Yasha? What will you do differently this time? What will remain the same?

MG: I feel this time I put myself out there more. I have been on various podcasts, did more interviews, scheduled a virtual book tour, and promoted publicly more. I am not the best at self-promotion and a part of me feels it will annoy people. I’m trying to push past that. I feel if it bugs people, they can always mute me or keep scrolling. 🙂

In terms of what’s the same, I had my Ain’t It Funny book launch at the local library and will do the same for the release of Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah. For AIF, I had joke stations and people who attended were able to make up their own jokes or share one of the one already there. This time, the theme is Bar Mitzvah party! I’m excited for the party atmosphere and the activities I have planned: Bar Mitzvah games, photo booth, snacks, etc.

The Juggler

MR:  In addition to being a novelist, you are a middle-school teacher, editor, and writing coach. How do you juggle these different facets of your life? What are the biggest challenges? The greatest rewards?

MG: Besides what you mentioned, my friend and I recently started a college consulting business, https://caringcollegeconsulting.com/. We have both worked independently assisting students with college essays and applications and decided to join forces. So, yes, all of these ventures require balance, and sometimes it’s a challenge. However, it has forced me to become more organized, which has been a struggle since elementary school. As I have become older, I have learned what works for me. For the college consulting, my business partner and I make detailed spreadsheets that keep us on track.

Teaching requires daily and weekly planning. And, thanks to deadlines, I can keep up with my writing. The biggest reward of all my ventures is connecting with and helping others. I love encouraging my middle-school students and celebrating their accomplishments. The same holds true for our consulting clients. It’s so rewarding seeing their faces light up when they get into the college or university they want or when they see how far their Common App essay has come.

Finally, I adore connecting with readers as well and hearing their thoughts about my novels. When a student says they saw themselves in my characters, it means a lot.

Writing Routine

MR: What is your writing process like, Margaret? Do you have a specific writing routine? Also, are you a plotter or a pantser?

MG: I write when I can. Usually, that’s on weekends or over school breaks. I used to be a pantser, but I would inevitably get stuck toward the middle of a book. Now I write out all the major plot points and make a chapter-by-chapter outline. I’m lucky my agent is editorial. She always provides great feedback on my outlines and any scene I’m stuck on. One of my closest friends is a writer too, and she and I swap pages and brainstorm all the time as well, and that’s also very helpful.

Next Up…

MR: What’s next on your writing agenda? Any new projects you can tell us about?

MG: My friend and I are working on a book for an adult audience. It’s fun and quirky and still very much in the planning stages. I also have another middle-grade idea, and we’ll see what happens. Fingers crossed.

Lightning Round!

And finally, No Mixed-Up Files interview is complete without a lightning round, so…

Preferred writing snack? Goldfish crackers

Most memorable World Series moment? The ball going through Buckner’s legs in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series

Favorite Mets player, past or present? I can’t pick just one: Past would be Tom Seaver, Keith Hernandez, Mike Piazza, and David Wright. The present would be Francisco Lindor.

Coffee or tea? Coffee to wake up, chamomile tea to calm down

Zombie apocalypse: Yea or nay? Nay, because I have no survival skills at all.

Superpower? The ability to go back in time

Favorite place on earth? Anywhere with my family and my cat, Goose 🙂 

You’re stranded on a desert island, with only three items in your possession. What are they? Assuming I can’t bring my family, then sunscreen, a water purifier, and a huge box of matches

MR: Thank you for chatting with me, Margaret—and congratulations on Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah. I thought it was fab, and I know MUF readers will agree!

MG: I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Thank you so much for having me. This was so fun, and your questions really made me think!

Bio

Margaret Gurevich had wanted to be a writer since she was seven years old. Her first story was about a girl who got kidnapped in the woods, and she entered it in the second-grade writing contest. Unfortunately, her teachers thought the story was too scary, and the prize went to a girl who wrote about a talking strawberry. However, if you ask Margaret, talking strawberries are plenty scary, so she was definitely robbed! Lucky for her, she recovered from this slight and went on to write for magazines (SELF, Ladies’ Home Journal, Parents, and more) and publish novels. Her Chloe by Design series was billed as a “Project Runway for Teens,” and received praise from School Library Journal, VOYA, Booklist, and Kirkus. She is also the author of books in Penguin Workshop’s Who Was series. Her middle-grade novel, Ain’t It Funny, was published by Penguin Workshop in 2024. Learn more about Margaret on her website.

Melissa Roske is a writer of middle-grade fiction. Before spending her days with imaginary people, she interviewed real ones as a journalist in Europe. In London she landed a job as an advice columnist for Just Seventeen magazine. Upon returning to her native New York, Melissa contributed to several books and magazines, selected jokes for Reader’s Digest (just the funny ones), and received certification as a life coach from NYU. In addition to her debut novel Kat Greene Comes Clean (Charlesbridge), Melissa’s short story “Grandma Merle’s Last Wish” appears in the Jewish middle-grade anthology, Coming of Age: 13 B’nai Mitzvah Stories. Learn more about Melissa on her Website and follow her on Facebook, and Instagram.

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