Recently Published Books
RAWI has begun compiling a list of recently published books by Arab-American/SWANA writers and RAWI-affiliated writers. View the list or submit news of your own published work below (or access directly via Google Docs here).
2021 Annual Arab American Caucus Held March 7th
On Saturday, March 7th, 2021 from 6:30-7:45 PM, RAWI & Mizna held the annual Arab American Caucus at AWP’s virtual 2021 conference. The caucus was organized by Jameelah Lang, RAWI board member and Glenn Shaheen, RAWI Executive Director. The event featured a presentation from Lana Barkwai, Executive + Artistic Director of Mizna.
If you missed the chance to attend, feel free to contact us with your perspective on highlights, priorities, or challenges in the Arab-American/SWANA literary community.
A description of the event: this will be a town-hall style meeting, creating a much needed space for Arab American writers to build and connect within AWP. We invite established and emerging writers, editors, students, scholars, and organizers, and aim for the caucus to facilitate networking and exchange on Arab American literary endeavors, as well as craft, publishing, poetics, and praxis. Our caucus seeks to empower and center the voices of underrepresented Americans with roots in the Arab world, including Black Arabs, queer and trans Arabs, differently bodied Arabs, and stateless Arabs. This event will take place over Zoom.
News Archive
Etel Adnan Poetry Prize (First or Second Book of Poetry): Deadline April 15th, 2021
Every year the University of Arkansas Press together with the Radius of Arab American Writers accepts submissions for the Etel Adnan Poetry Series and awards the $1,000 Etel Adnan Poetry Prize to a first or second book of poetry, in English, by a writer of Arab heritage. Since its founding in 1996 the Radius of Arab American Writers has celebrated and fostered the writings and writers that make up the vibrant and diverse Arab American community; and the University of Arkansas Press has long been committed to publishing diverse kinds of poetry by a diversity of poets. The series editors are Hayan Charara and Fady Joudah, and the prize is named in honor of the world-renowned poet, novelist, essayist, and artist Etel Adnan
The prize includes: professional copyediting by expert poetry editors, design and production by veteran designers who specialize in the typesetting of verse, and production managed by a house with a history of printing first-rate books. Additionally, the Radius of Arab American Writers will award the author a $1,000 prize and widely publicize the winning book. We believe this offers the poet the best possible opportunity to connect with his or her audience via the printed word.
More information about the Etel Adnan Prize, including application instructions, can be found here.
RAWI Sewanee Fellowship: Deadline March 15th, 2021
The Sewanee Writers’ Conference, July 20–August 1, 2021, is located at The University of the South in Sewanee, TN and offers workshops in fiction, poetry, playwriting, and nonfiction. The program also includes an individual meeting with a faculty member, readings, craft lectures, and master classes.
The Conference is offering a RAWI Fellowship. Fellows are waived the $1800 cost to attend, which includes room and board, and are only responsible for their travel costs. Each fellow is asked to be an active member in workshop, give a 15-minute reading at Sewanee, and meet individually with six writers from their workshop for half hour manuscript consultations. Fellows also have an opportunity to teach a one-hour master class at Sewanee, for which they would receive a $500 honorarium.
This summer’s faculty will include poets Tarfia Faizullah, Mark Jarman, Nate Marshall, Carl Phillips, A.E. Stallings, and Monica Youn; fiction writers Chris Bachelder, Jamel Brinkley, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Adrianne Harun, Vanessa Hua, Katie Kitamura, Jill McCorkle, Claire Messud, Jess Walter, and Stephanie Powell Watts; nonfiction writers Alexander Chee, Amitava Kumar, Elena Passarello, and Aisha Sabatini Sloan; and playwrights Naomi Iizuka, Dan O’Brien, Liliana Padilla, and Lloyd Suh.
Applications are open February 15 – March 15, 2021. Details on how to apply can be found at www.sewaneewriters.org/apply. Fellows must have books in print by the time of the Conference in order to apply and can’t have attended the Conference as a fellow before. Any writer interested in applying for a RAWI fellowship should please note that they are applying as such in the first sentence of their statement of interest.