Looking for Imani
An interview with author Dianne Bates
Your latest book is a middle-grade
novel Looking for Imani published
by Woodslane
Press in June 2025. Can you share briefly
what it is about?
Nabila Samra is the eldest daughter of a single
Arabic mother, Bahar, and sister to Abdullah,
Layla, and Imani. Because her mother doesn’t
speak English fluently, Nabila is often forced
to act as translator. And, too, Mum is depressed
as she is isolated in the community which is
sometimes hostile towards the family. At a time
when she is home with a cold, Nabila’s
brother is in trouble with the police, and her
youngest sister Imani goes missing.
Looking for Imani revolves around the days following Imani’s disappearance
and tells of the
Samra family’s involvement with the police and
media, and Nabila’s efforts to find her sister
and to help keep stability in her family. For
the first time, the family is approached by
sympathetic neighbours and tentative friendships
are formed.
The story is told in two strands, both in
present tense: one features Nabila, while the other
tells of what is happening to Imani. The latter
believes she is with her Teeta (grandmother)
and is not homesick except occasionally. It is only
when Teeta’s daughter comes to visit that
Imani is returned to her rightful home.
What prompted you to
write Looking for Imani?
I was working as a volunteer for the Smith
Family charity, helping people with things like
paying bills, when a single Middle Eastern
mother came for help. She was accompanied by
her vivacious twelve-year-old daughter who acted
as her interpreter as she couldn’t speak
English. I developed a relationship with the
family and after I finished working for the charity
I often visited them. At a time when there was
friction in the Middle East, the family was
being abused by neighbours who even graffitied
their rented home with hateful slogans.
Among other things, I was able to help and find
them alternative accommodation.
Looking for Imani is based on a migrant family with similar issues. Of
course it’s a fiction: I
didn’t use the family’s name, and one of their
children didn’t go missing. I tried to show how
the disappearance of the youngest child Imani
helped bring out the best in neighbours, some
of whom had previously targeted the family
racially.
What was the
process of writing Looking for Imani like? And how did it come to
be
published
with Woodslane Press?
Many of my books for children are based on
experiences in my life. At a time when there
were wars in the Middle East, I thought about
how I could write about a family from there
and show how they experienced life in Australia.
That’s when I remembered that I’d once
befriended a family which was experiencing
racial hatred. I wanted the book to have a
positive ending, and that’s how Looking
for Imani was started and evolved.
I sent the manuscript to several publishers, and
it was finally accepted from the slush pile by
Virginia Greig, the commissioning editor for a
small Australian publisher, Woodslane Press.
What is in the
pipeline? Can you share anything you are working on next?
Virginia (Woodslane) has accepted my latest
completed manuscript, The Very Best Teacher to
be released in December 2025. When I was in
fifth grade my teacher died after an operation:
I was bereft as I adored her. (Over sixty years
later, I still remember songs and poems she
taught us!)
Originally the book featured the death of a
teacher, but publishers didn’t like the
idea: I changed it so that by the book’s end,
the teacher simply moves to another school. The
Very Best Teacher is a gentle, heart-warming book about
family, a teacher’s influence, self-
growth, and relationships.
Recently I finished another middle-grade
novel, Girl Power, set in a holiday home for school
children. Once again, it’s based on my childhood
experience being sent to such a home. I’ve
also sent this manuscript to Virginia.
Currently I’m trying to think of another book,
but I seem to have mined the whole of my
childhood experiences!
