I’m an award winning Canadian author (“13,” “Jamilah at the End of the World”) editor and journalist who began writing as a theatre critic and then a music journalist before writing and editing fiction.
Since the ‘nineties, I’ve worked as a grants writer, served on national and municipal arts juries, and as an administrator for non profit arts organisations.
As an editor, teacher and arts administrator I address issues around disability arts, my Palestinian heritage and marginalized voices around the world. As a mentor with the Toronto Arts Council Refugee and Newcomer Mentorship program, and in my workshops, I seek to demystify the art of writing and embolden my students’ and mentees’ voices.
From Palestine to Vancouver to Ireland to the Catholic School system in Toronto, I have been a Writer in Residence, teaching and mentoring hundreds of students and learning from the communities around me. I developed my first book “13,” (a comic novel about a young girl running away from an abusive Catholic school to New York City on the day John Lennon was shot) with the Humber School for Writers under the tutelage of multi award winning authors Michael Helm (The Projectionists) and Roddy Doyle (The Commitments). My recent YA novel, “Jamilah at the End of the World” addresses eco-anxiety and the importance of community from the perspective of a Toronto Palestinian teen.