Authors

April 22, 2019

Earth Day & Best of the Fest Connection

The Golden Harvest will have an encore screening at the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival as part of the Best of the Fest screenings–Super! Wednesday, April 24 at 4:50 pm at St. Anthony Main: https://prod3.agileticketing.net/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=436771~36893ed1-b0b9-423c-bbab-90f22d0aeafe&epguid=78d5df86-076b-41eb-9b27-8d9e012642d6& I lived in a house only once in my life. For three years. It was in Minnesota in Continue reading

Arab Americans, Arts and Culture, Film, Food, Greece, Heritage, Italy, Jordan, Middle East, Minnesota, Olive Oil, olive trees, Spain, The Golden Harvest, Uncategorized

Arab female filmmakers, artists, Authors, Film, Food, Greece, Italy, Olive oil, Women, Writing
April 4, 2019

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

Arab Americans, Arts and Culture, Author, Heritage, Islam/Muslim, Publishing, Slavery, South Africa, Uncategorized, Western Cap, Writing

Authors, Heritage, Islam, museums, Quran, Slavery, South Africa, Travel, Western Cape, Women, Writing
September 4, 2010

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

Arts and Culture, Author, Publishing

artists, Authors, Freelancing, writers
February 14, 2010

Love Notes From Fatima and Scheherazade

Debutante’s Ball is a website of a bunch of fun authors with upcoming books. Alicia Bessette, whose novel is coming out in August and who’s one of the webmasters asked me to write a bit on love, and here you go, and I think Fatima and Scheherazade would approve: Some Love Notes for Debutantes http://www.thedebutanteball.com/?m=20100213 Continue reading

Arts and Culture, Author, Books, Middle East, Publishing

Authors, love, romance, Writing
September 12, 2009

The Sacremento Book Review & The Night Counter

http://sacramentobookreview.com/modern_literature/the-night-counter/ The Night Counter Posted by Editor at 8 September, 2009, 9:25 am By Alia Yunis Shaye Areheart Books, $23.00, 365 pages When the immortal storyteller Scheherazade gives Fatima Abdullah 1,001 nights to tell the great stories of her life, Fatima begins to prepare for her death. Between getting her affairs in order, Fatima spends Continue reading

Arts and Culture, Author, Books, NIght Counter Reviews and Press, Publishing

Authors, book reviews
September 2, 2009

One Hundred Years Twenty Years Later

During my tour of The Night Counter, I was often asked either “What writers have influenced you the most?’ or “Who are you favorite writers?” I have no answer for the first because to say Gabriel Garcia Marquez influenced me is to say that I’ve made some conscious choice to use his style or tone Continue reading

Arts and Culture, Author, Books, Publishing

Authors, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Night Counter, Writing
July 26, 2009

The Night Counter Sells Out At Book Soup

Thank you to everyone who came to yesterday’s reading at Book Soup. You didn’t leave a copy in the store! (More books are on their way) When I first moved to LA many years ago, it was a terribly clunky move, with lots of test and trials that were not easy, in fact, often very Continue reading

Arts and Culture, Author, Books, Los Angeles, Middle East

Authors, Books, The Night Counter
July 17, 2009

At A BOOKSTORE SOMEWHERE IN LA

Or How Not To Buy Your Own Book. The first day The Night Counter came out, my friend Natasha promptly bought it at Barnes and Noble in New York, and another friend did the same in Nashville. So I thought I’m going to go buy my own book, too. Just to see it in a Continue reading

Arts and Culture, Author, Books, Publishing

Authors, Books, The Night Counter, Writing

About Alia

Alia Yunis is a writer, journalist and filmmaker. She is currently producing and directing “The Golden Harvest,” a feature length documentary about how olive oil has shaped the Mediterranean culture, cuisine and history for 6,000 years, through war and peace. Her debut novel, The Night Counter (Random House) has been critically acclaimed by the Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, and several other publications. It was also chosen as a top summer read by the Chicago Tribune and Boston Phoenix. The Boston Globe has called it “wonderfully imaginative…poignant, hilarious.” Alia was born in Chicago and grew up in the U.S., Greece, and the Middle East. She has worked as a filmmaker and journalist in several cities, especially Los Angeles. Her fiction has appeared in several anthologies, including The Robert Olen Butler Best Short Stories collection, and her non-fiction work includes articles for The Los Angeles Times, Saveur, SportsTravel Magazine, and Aramco World. She currently teaches film at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi.