Writings
Anthologies | Poems | Essays | Fiction
ANTHOLOGIES
Ways of Walking
This wonderful collection asks the question: Is walking a subversive act? Spoiler alert: the answer is yes, though the 26 authors in the anthology respond to it differently. My essay, "Ah, Oufrane," is about walking with my father in America and in Morocco. It's one of the most emotional pieces I've ever written.
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My poem, "My Father Eats Figs," appears in Border Lines: Poems of Migration, a wonderful international anthology:
Each year, millions join the ranks of intrepid migrants who have reshaped societies throughout history. The movement of peoples across borders—whether forcible, as with the Middle Passage and the Trail of Tears, or voluntary, as with the great migrations from Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America to the United States and Western Europe—brings with it emotional and psychological dislocations.
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Common Boundary: Stories of Immigration
This provocative anthology of writings explores immigration from a number of perspectives. It includes my essay, "Living Between Question Marks," as well as a poem, "My Father Eats Figs." In this essay, I tried to crystallize in a few pages my complicated responses to my hyphenated identity and my emotional relationship with punctuation.?!
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The Flying Camel
This is a wonderful one-of-a-kind collection of memoir essays by women of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish heritage. My essay, "The Life & Times of Ruth of the Jungle," explores my relation with my Moroccan family and my grandfather's legacy.
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Becoming Myself: Reflections on Growing Up Female
Woohoo, that's my piece alongside those by JK Rowling, Maya Angelou and Kate Winslet, among others! We're all sharing memories and experiences of what it means to be a girl growing up in our world. My essay, "The Smell of Women," goes back to the first short story I shared with my middle school English class and a teacher who found it "filthy." Sigh.
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Desire: Women Write About Wanting
This anthology examines how women of all ages feel about desire. My essay, "Women Writing Desire," interweaves my life as a daughter and mother with the daily discipline of writing.
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POEMS
"My Father Eats Figs," a visual poem
ESSAYS
"The Storyteller"
"In Search of the Goddess: Following the Call to Kildare, Ireland"
"On Pizza in Naples and Flying Solo"
"Combing My Mother's Hair"
"Living Between Question Marks"
FICTION
Swamp Girl
You Blows What You Is
