Publishing
-
GETTING HERITAGE IN WRITING: This Month’s Aramco World Cover Story
These are just some thoughts of mine after my third visit to Cape Town, this time to write this month’s cover story for Aramco World Magazine https://www.aramcoworld.com/en-US/Articles/March-2019/The-Handwritten-Heritage-of-South-Africa-s-Kitabs The first time I saw the Western Cape, I thought “This looks just like Los Angeles,” and then I thought, “This looks just like Lebanon.” I’m not just Continue reading
-
The Blog Tour: My Writing Process
In which I join other writers in talking about the fun and tortuous process. Continue reading
-
Gained in Translation (and how I lost the ‘dude’)
Interesting. I wonder what this is about? That was my initial reaction when I opened a package from my publisher the other day and saw Przepowiednia Szeherezady. I was thinking that another writer must be as equally obsessed with Scheherazade as I am. Perhaps she had read The Night Counter, and had liked it so Continue reading
-
Thank you, Steve Jobs, for Letting Me Write
Since I was in college, the one thing that has been in my life nearly everyday—and for better or worse, nearly all day—has been my Apple. Along with one of those apples that grow on trees, turning on my Mac has been part of my morning ritual wherever I have been and in whatever state-of-mind Continue reading
-
War and Body Image: Guernica and Arab American Literature
When my friend and author Randa Jarrar asked me for a short story for a collection she was editing for Guernica, I wrote “Girls on Ice.” Those were the people talking in my head at the time. Some form of them is always talking in my head because they are in part who I once Continue reading
-
Talking Poetry, Not Osama
Because Abu Dhabi has become such a crossroads of the world since I have lived here, I find myself having a lot of “how did I get here” moments. For example in the years since 9-11, I’ve never sat around picturing where I’d be the day after Osama bin Ladin was put to rest, relatively Continue reading
-
On Being Just Plain American
It seems like most of my life, I’ve been asked what it’s like to be Arab or Palestinian or Lebanese or Muslim. I’ve even been asked questions about being Latino and Jewish, based on my appearance I assume. However, I can’t remember anyone ever asking me what it is like to be an American, although Continue reading
-
Doner Kabob and Schweinefleisch
At the baggage carousel at the Stuttgart airport, the first stop of the book tour for Feigen in Detroit (Aufbau 2010), I waited for my suitcase while four Gulf women dressed like they had arrived at a spa at the North Pole waited for their 10 gargantuan suitcases. From eavesdropping, I gathered the baggage was Continue reading
-
ABC.COM’s Michelle Goodman on the Freelance Life & Art
Recently, Michelle Goodman, the author of “My So-Called Freelance Life,” a must read cautionary and inspirational tale for those contemplating chucking it all to pursue their own dreams, interviewed me and two other writers for her column on ABC.com. You can read for yourself how we all learned about the glamorous life of writing. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/artist-heart-michelle-goldmans-reasons-day-job/story?id=11287370 Continue reading
-
THE PAPERBACK RELEASE OF THE NIGHT COUNTER THIS WEEK
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Emily Lavelle (212) 572-8756 elavelle@randomhouse.com PRAISE FOR THE NIGHT COUNTER: “[Yunis] weaves a colorful tapestry…rich in character and spirit.” —Entertainment Weekly “Wonderfully imaginative…poignant, hilarious…The branches of this family tree support four generations of achievement, assimilation, disappointment, and dysfunction.…Their stories form an affectionate, amusing, intensely human portrait of Continue reading
Alia Yunis 