Naturalised talent

Dedra Stevenson is a naturalised Emirati citizen and has lived in the UAE for 22 years. Sammy Dallal / The National

Alabama-born Dedra Stevenson has lived in the Emirates for more than two decades. Since meeting her Emirati husband while teaching English in the US in the 1980s, she has become a naturalised Emirati with a passport and Kulasat Al Qaid (family book).

The UAE, she says, is now her home. “I have spent half my life here. I’m a total hybrid of two cultures right now. I really consider myself both. I know what it’s like to be an Emirati, and I know what it’s like to be American.”

Stevenson, 47, has lived in Sharjah for the past 22 years. She converted to Islam before marrying, when her husband Hussain was then just a friend, causing some rifts in her conservative southern American family.

She has made a close circle of friends and raised four children: Saeed, Ibrahim, Abdullah and the only girl, Hanan. She is also a published author of young adult fiction.

The Hakima’s Tale trilogy is about a young Arab-American girl who must protect the human race from the attack of the Mighty Blue Jinni and his followers, the Marid army.

“I love mystical things and magic. I came up with a story that is a culmination of some common held beliefs and also my crazy made-up imagination. In the beginning people were a little sceptical, especially because it was about jinn because it can be a taboo subject around here. People believe that if you talk about jinn too much, you are inviting them to be around you.”

Stevenson has also worked as a librarian at the British Council and still holds a teaching position at the College of Communication and Media Sciences at Zayed University in Dubai.

Her next book, Magnolia Grove, due out at the end of this year, is about a woman who moved to the UAE from the US, but has to return home under “dire circumstances”.

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