Submissions Guidelines


• rawi.org Poetry Editor: Fady Joudah
 • rawi.org Fiction Editor: Patricia Sarrafian Ward
 • rawi.org Nonfiction Editor: Steven Salaita


Poetry:


We are interested in your best poems. Unless solicited by the editor, only original poems will be considered. The section will feature a single poet's work every two weeks and the editorial choices will be difficult. Our main purpose is to display the depth of the aesthetic of the Arab-American poet, and share our best work with the literary community at large. Translations of the work of prominent Arab poets from all periods are welcome. Theme issues will be announced on occasion. Please limit your submission to four poems, to be sent as an e-mail attachment, or as part of the body of the e-mail, to poetry editor Fady Joudah at rawipoet@yahoo.com . No restriction on theme or style. A brief bio, pending acceptance, is optional. Please indicate your name under the "subject" heading of your e-mail.





Fiction


Send the writing that makes you the most proud -- we want to see original, real, emotionally and intellectually provocative work, with characters driving the story and not vice versa. We are not interested in "workshopped" stories-that is, writing that's so well-crafted and reworked to fit some ideal of the perfect story that it has been drained of life. This means we will read stories without plots so long as they have shape; we will read stories with unconventional grammar and punctuation so long as they have coherence; and so on. In other words, there are no restrictions on style and content other than to engage the reader honestly and profoundly.


A word limit, however, does exist: maximum 4,000 words. Self-contained excerpts will be considered, as will previous publications, though preference will be given to unpublished work. Send submissions as an email attachment to fiction editor Patricia Sarrafian Ward at rawifiction@yahoo.com, along with a brief bio in the body of the email. Two stories maximum.


Publication of announcements or original work on rawi.org is limited to RAWI members in good standing. Publication of original work on rawi.org is refereed; RAWI members submitting work for the first time are given preference.



Nonfiction:

We accept all varieties of nonfiction: creative, memoir, political (including statements on issues of political and cultural interest to the Arab American literary community). Send lively and interesting writing. We consider strength of voice and confidence of tone to be attractive devices. There is no need, then, to repeatedly qualify what others might conceptualize as a controversial point. The controversy, not the qualification, is welcomed.


Send submissions as an email attachment to nonfiction editor Steven Salaita at salaita@vt.edu . Please include a bio in the body of your email.


Featured Writers


FICTION WRITER: Susan Muaddi Darraj
Susan Muaddi Darraj is associate professor of English at Harford Community College in Bel Air, Maryland ...


POET: Dima Hilal
Dima Hilal is a poet and writer, born in Beirut and raised in California, where she studied at the University of California ...


Original Arab American writing:

Voices from the South
Four Lebanese Women
...

Summer Rain
Andrea Assaf
I wash my body in Beirut as missiles rain...

Salti Dispatches from Beirut
Rasha Salti reports on the situation in Lebanon for RAWI

Laila Halaby's letter to an Israeli soldier
Normally in letters I start out by wishing the person to whom I am writing good health and spirits.

Mohja Kahf's letter to a friend entitled "Israel is Godzilla"
From where I sit: Israel has been Godzilla backed by super-Godzilla...

To see Kahf's essay 'The Israelyville Horror?' please go to the homepage of www.MuslimWakeUp.com

Security Apartheid
Ginan Rauf
Amidst all the horror visiting Lebanon recently...

My Family in Lebanon
Hayan Charara -
I have stopped counting the dead. A single death is more than this world can afford...

Elmaz Abinader poems - Two for Hayan
(nothing new)
(My Father's House is a Terrorist Target) 

Word from Dahiyeh, Lebanon
by editor of ArteNews Maymanah Farhat (electronic intafada)


 Featured Artist:

war ration(allies)

al-iqaa


 Advertisement: