About

My first novel, A Map of Home is forthcoming in September. It won the Hopwood and Geoffrey James Gosling Awards at the University of Michigan, where I received my MFA. The novel will also be published in Taiwan, Germany, Israel, and Italy, and portions of it have already been translated into Italian, Finnish, and Arabic.

My short fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, Hunger Mountain, Duck & Herring, online, and in numerous anthologies. My short story, “You Are a Fourteen-Year-Old Arab Chick Who Just Moved To Texas,” won the Million Writers Award and was a notable story in Best American Non-Required Reading 2005.

My translations from the Arabic have appeared in numerous anthologies including Words Without Borders: The World Through the Eyes of Writers. I translated the acclaimed Lebanese novel Year of the Revolutionary New Bread-Making Machine (Saqi/Telegram Books).

I'm also a columnist at Make/Shift magazine.

Currently, I live in Ann Arbor with my 11-year-old son Angelo, my boyfriend Russell, and our cat, Mahatma Boots.

Here is a fun timeline for your pleasure:

1978: I am born to an Egyptian-Greek Mama and a Palestinian Baba in Chicago. We move to Kuwait two months later.
1982: I begin school early and my journey of nerddom and doing-things-too-soon begins.
1990: Iraq invades Kuwait and I move to Alexandria, Egypt.
1991: My dad gets a job in NYC and I move to White Plains, NY
1992: I move to Greenwich, CT, which is so white it scars me for life.
1994: I enroll at Sarah Lawrence College at age 16.
1996: I give birth to my son at age 18.
1998: I move to Austin, TX to escape family and ex.
2000: I receive an MA in Middle Eastern Studies.
2000: I begin novel.
2001: I move to a trailer in Kyle, TX (pop. 5,000 at the time) & begin novel again.
2003: I finish novel.
2004: I begin revising novel. And I start this blog.
2006: I sell novel.
2006: I move to Ann Arbor to attend University of Michigan's MFA program.
2007: Novel wins Hopwood Award
2008: I receive my MFA in fiction.

Timeline will continue as drama accrues...