Richard Poplak was born in Johannesburg and immigrated to Canada with his family a few months before Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in 1990. Richard trained as a filmmaker and fine artist at Montreal’s Concordia University and has produced and directed numerous short films, music videos and commercials. His first book was called Ja, No, Man: Growing Up White in Apartheid-Era South Africa (Penguin, 2007); his follow-up, entitled The Sheikh’s Batmobile: In Pursuit of American Pop-Culture in the Muslim World (Soft Skull, 2010), is out now. Richard has also written the experimental journalistic graphic novel Kenk: A Graphic Portrait (Pop Sandbox, 2010). Ja, No, Man was shortlisted for the University of Johannesburg Literary Award and voted one of the Top-10 books of 2007 by Now Magazine.