The 2018 O. Henry Prize Stories in a new Persian transation

Via The Tehran Times, the 2018 edition of The O. Henry Prize Stories is now available in a new translation by Ali Famian, and has just been released in Iran. The edition is titled for one of the stories, “Lucky Dragon,” by Viet Dinh, and my story, “An Amount of Discretion,” which first appeared in The Southern Review, is included. The 2018 anthology, edited by Laura Furman, features stories by Jo Ann Beard, Jo Lloyd, Jamil Jan Kochai, Brad Felver, Thomas Bolt, and more. Read the story here.

And thanks to Jo Lloyd for this great link on bookstores in Tehran!

My latest column at Invisible History.

“Searching for Family History in My Grandmother’s Embroidery,” runs today in my column at Catapult Magazine. My grandmother, Fausya Zemberekci Alwan, lived a life bound by family and cultural expectations, and to many her life might have appeared small from the outside—but her life was extraordinary. Growing up, I was always fascinated by her embroidery, so I’m grateful to be able to share this story of the new pieces we recently discovered. It’s those latest pieces that seem to tell a deeper, more personal story.

And if you are one of the many sheltered in place today in the SF Bay Area (as I and my family are), or those around the world working from home or taking classes from home, be safe, take care, and take care of each other.

We'll miss #AWP20 in San Antonio

In a turn that no one expected, our panel for High Style and MIsdemeanors, scheduled for this Thursday, March 5, at #AWP20, is cancelled. The decision was a difficult one, but the right one for us. For those headed to the conference, I hope you have a fun, enriching, and healthy visit to a great city. It would have been lovely to go to San Antonio, but for now, my panel colleagues and I are looking forward to #AWP21, where we hope to bring the discussion to the conference in Kansas City next year.

AWP Panel handouts available for download now!

If you’re headed to AWP in San Antonio , come to our panel on high style! Thursday, March 5, 10:35 am, Room 211.

Get all the details, and download the panel outline and high style examples in contemporary fiction here. The panel has chosen some terrific examples that innovate upon the traditional apolitical stance, and the discussion promises to be a fascinating one—hope to see you there!

New post for my column at Catapult

The second installment of my column “Invisible History,” at Catapult looks at my father—his bicultural heritage as an American born son of Arab immigrant parents and the conflicts he faced living between cultures. I’m so grateful to Catapult and to Nicole Chung for this opportunity! And especially thrilled I’m able to include family photographs and other images. For this latest column, “Why My Father Could Not Embrace His Name,” the cover image is a watercolor my father painted, likely sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s.

Tuesday, Feb. 11 is Pub Day for A MAP IS ONLY ONE STORY!

Happy pub day to A MAP IS ONLY ONE STORY, the first published anthology of writing from Catapult magazine! So grateful to editors Nicole Chung and Mensah Demary for including my essay in this beautiful collection: twenty writers sharing stories of migration, family, the search for home and belonging, and what it means to exist between languages and cultures.

Praise for A MAP IS ONLY ONE STORY:

“At Catapult, Nicole Chung and Mensah Demary have worked to publish voices from all over the world on the human geography that defies political borders and how immigration policy takes shape in the everyday lives of individuals. A Map Is Only One Story draws from that work, presenting pieces from 20 writers that weave reporting with personal stories of immigration and identity.”

—Corinne Segal, Literary Hub

The collection is now available in bookstores and libraries everywhere!

Hope to see you in San Antonio at AWP!

If you're headed to the 2020 AWP Conference & Bookfair in San Antonio, TX, join Anita Felicelli, Olga Zilberbourg, Lillian Howan, Aatif Rashid, and me, discussing "High Style and Misdemeanors: The Virtues and Vices of Elevated Prose," as we discuss the intersection of elevated prose and socially and politically engaged work. Thursday, March 5, 10:35 AM, Room 211, Henry B. González Convention Center, Meeting Room Level.

A Map is Only One Story in TIME

A MAP IS ONLY ONE STORY is included in TIME's list of 11 New Books You Should Read in February. Catapult’s first-ever published anthology of essays features twenty writers on migration, family, and what it is to live between cultures—and I'm thrilled to be included! More details here.

A Map is Only One Story out Feb. 11!

I’m thrilled to have an essay included in this beautiful anthology from Catapult Books, edited by Nicole Chung and Mensah Demary. The collection launches Feb. 11, but you can pre-order online now from Catapult, or your favorite indie bookseller.

From the publisher:

In the first published anthology of writing from Catapult magazine, twenty writers share stories of migration, family, the search for home and belonging, and what it means to exist between languages and cultures

From rediscovering an ancestral village in China to experiencing the realities of American life as a Nigerian, the search for belonging crosses borders and generations. Selected from the archives of Catapult magazine, the essays in A Map Is Only One Story highlight the human side of immigration policies and polarized rhetoric, as twenty writers share provocative personal stories of existing between languages and cultures.

My new column at Catapult Magazine

I’m thrilled to have the chance to share some of my family stories in a new column up at Catapult Magazine, Invisible History. The first installment, “Are You Really Sisters? On Identity and Sisterhood Within a Multicultural Family,” is up today. I love the artwork by Catapult’s contributing illustrator, Sirin Thada.