The Hookah Girl is a collection of autobiographical comics by Marguerite Dabaie exploring her heritage and identity as a Palestinian Christian born and raised in America. Her work presents a truthful, personal portrait of the Middle East, its joys and challenges, the people who live there, and those who keep the region in their hearts.

Along the way, Marguerite learns to gracefully eat sunflower seeds, steals wild grape leaves, and realizes that differences and contradictions are what make the world so very interesting.

What initially inspired you to start self-publishing your comics?

Really, it was because I knew that The Hookah Girl in particular would be a hard sale to publishers. Since the subject matter may be considered controversial to some (read: Arabs), I thought that it might have been easier to just get the work out there in any way I could and to garner interest from there. I have to say that the path from then to now has been quite different from what I was expecting, but I don’t regret it one bit.

Most of your work is non-fiction. For instance, your Palestinian background is the basis for The Hookah Girl. You also did a short illustrated history of Nell Brinkley for Women's Review of Books. What do you enjoy about drawing something based on history, personal or otherwise? What are some of the challenges?

I’m a huge, huge, huge history nerd. As much as I love a good fiction story, I find myself looking for the real-life parallels in it. I just find the world so weird and amazing on its own, I like to highlight that more than invent—and I also hope to impress some of that amazement onto other people when they read my work!

To me, the real challenge is that, while non-fiction is “factual,” they aren’t hard facts, and it’s still difficult to find a nonjudgmental, unbiased account of anything. So, I try to be as truthful as possible but I’m still aware that what I’m putting down on paper still isn’t exactly how it went down.

Tell us about a place in your neighborhood that inspires you.

In the past couple of years, some nice, cute little coffee shops popped up near me (in Ditmas Park). I especially like Qathra on Cortelyou Road. Very calm and great to work in while sipping a hot chocolate.

What do you do when you're not writing/drawing/creating?

I work at a museum in Manhattan by day and attend graduate school by night! I also try to squeeze in as many hours of movie-watching as I can. Either really, really good movies (Seven Samurai), or really, really bad movies (2019: After the Fall of New York).

Any new projects in the works—The Hookah Girl #3, perhaps?

I’m currently doing a ton of research for a historical-fictional graphic novel about Silk Road-era Sogdiana (now Uzbekistan). The research is taking a while, but it’ll be so worth it! I’m also setting my sights on making a third Hookah Girl book; I think the series will be put to bed after that.

"Meet Your Zine Maker:" Q&A segments with Brooklyn Zine Fest 2012 exhibitors.