Recognitions
2026 Artist in Residence (McLaughlin Award), Headlands Center for the Arts
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2026 Artist in Residence, The Arab American National Museum
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2025 Winner, The Elizabeth George Foundation Grant
2025 Artist in Residence, Virginia Center for Creative Arts
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2025 Finalist, Margolis Award for Social Justice Journalism​
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2024 Winner, Samir Kassir Freedom of Press Award, the EU and the Samir Kassir Foundation
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2024-25 Fellow, Steinbeck Fellowship, San Jose State University
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2024 Winner, The Courage to Write Grant, the de Groot Foundation
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2024 Winner, The Turow-Kinder Award in Fiction, University of Pittsburgh
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2024 Scholar, Returning Participant Scholarship, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference
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2024 Scholar, Tennessee Williams Scholarship, Sewanee Writers' Conference
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2024 Scholar, Maat Scholarship, Community of Writers' Workshop
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2024 Scholar, Student Scholar Fund, Pitt's Center for Civil Rights and Racial Justice
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2023 Finalist, Margolis Award for Social Justice Journalism
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2023 Katharine Bakeless Nason Award in Nonfiction, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference
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2023 Scholar, Tin House Writers' Workshop
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2023 Scholar, Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway by Murphy Writing of Stockton University
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2022-23 Dietrich Fellow, MFA in Creative Writing, University of Pittsburgh
2022—2024 Heinz Fellow, Global Studies Center, University of Pittsburgh
2021 Finalist, Margolis Award for Social Justice Journalism
2021 Journalist Fellow, Logan Nonfiction Fellowship
2020 Writer Resident, Lesser Amman Library, MMAG Foundation
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2020 The Uncensored Library, Reporters Without Borders
Inclusion of essay, From Tora: Harry Potter in an Egyptian prison, originally published in Mada Masr while imprisoned in Egypt, featured as part of Egypt’s censored journalism archive in RSF’s virtual Minecraft-based library circumventing global censorship.