Reporting & Journalism
Feature about Annoor Sanatorium in Mafraq, Jordan, Plough Quarterly, forthcoming in Summer 2025 issue, “Health”
“Collapse of ceasefire in Gaza fractures a quiet Ramadan in holy month’s last days,” Religion News Service, March 20, 2025
“Hamstrung by Trump’s Executive Order, a Syrian Family and a U.S. Private Sponsor Group Hope for an Exception,” Anthrow Circus, February 24, 2025
Two-part article on Gaza, including status of Palestinian Christians sheltering in Holy Family Catholic Church (Part One: Fadi Lost His Apartment. He Won’t Let the Same Happen to His Church; Part Two: “He Fled His Gaza Home. Now He Feeds His Fellow Displaced”), Christianity Today, December 18 & 19, 2024
“West Bank Christian woman leads resistance to settlers’ seizure of family’s land,” Religion News Service, November 18, 2024
“How Messianic Jews Are Serving Israelis Displaced by Hamas and Hezbollah,” Christianity Today, October 15, 2024
“Calling it ‘religious duty,’ Jordanians boycott products from Israel-allied countries,” Religion News Service, October 3, 2024
“Hyperion,” Hidden Compass, May 2024
“Jordan’s First Lavender Farm: Cultivating Hope for Agri-revival,” Jordan News, December 26, 2023
“From Dust to Lunch: Jordanian Christians Decry Cost of Funeral Feast,” Christianity Today article by Jayson Casper, with reporting contributed by Heather Surls, September 7, 2023
“From Dogs to Deserts, Brenda’s Journey to Finding Home in Wadi Rum,” Jordan News, June 30, 2023
Anthrow Circus (2017-present)
“What Happened When I Tried to Like Arizona,” October 21, 2024
“The Dutch Transplant Who Is Flourishing Among Jordan’s Bedouin,” February 12, 2024
“Young Afghan Dreams: Three Sisters Share Their Artwork–and Future Hopes,” introductory text to documentary by W.H., June 19, 2023
“Exploring Palestinian Identity in Jordan’s Baqa’a Camp,” April 3, 2023, with artwork by Haifa Abu Khdair
“Shepherding Goats With a Jordanian Bedouin,” July 26, 2022
“Yalda: An Afghan Winter Story,” text with mixed-media video by Till We Have Faces, February 21, 2022
“‘I Was Raised Under the Trees’: Olive Harvest in Jordan,” November 22, 2021
“My Neighbors From Myanmar Taught Me to Receive,” April 5, 2021
“An Introduction to Arabic Poetry: Poet Nizar Qabbani,” text with video by Zaher Al Zaher, October 12, 2020
“Trauma-Informed Art-Making: An Interview,” interview with Sarah Racine, July 27, 2020
“View from a Pandemic: Amman, Jordan,” June 4, 2020
“The Conundrum of Return to Syria,” November 8, 2019, with artwork by Rahaf Adnan Oudah
“The Living Desert,” June 24, 2019
“Books Are Like Water: The 24-Hour Book Shop,” February 18, 2019
“A Painted Street in Jabal Amman,” September 10, 2018
“Returning Home to Inspiration,” July 16, 2018
“#HijabFashion,” March 19, 2018
“On Choosing One’s Neighbors,” October 16, 2017
EthnoTraveler (2018-19)
“Following the Map in My Feet,” about Jerusalem, December 2019
“For His 30th Birthday, a Norwegian Blogger Hopes to Visit Every Country on Earth,” February 2019
“Things Could Get Crazy,” about Jordanian start-up Shantet Sabaya, December 2018
“The Dream of Fluency,” about learning to speak Arabic, September 2018
“The Most Important Blessing Is Bread,” about Arab cultural traditions surrounding bread, July 2018
Creative Nonfiction
“Yet I Will Rejoice,” Relief, Winter 2025
“My Other Name Is Hagar,” Vita Poetica, July 15, 2024, also appeared in Vita Poetica’s 5th anniversary print issue, March 2025
“This Is a Segregated Wedding,” The Palisades Review, September 2023
“The Running, Dancing God: On the New York City Ballet & Coming Home to the Father,” Ekstasis (a publication of Christianity Today), Winter Collection Part 2, 2023
“Slowly, Slowly,” Brevity, Issue 72, January 2023
“Syrian Women,” Belmont Story Review, Fall 2022
“Chasing Sunbirds,” Catamaran, Winter 2022, nominated for a Pushcart Prize
“Say Trinity,” The Other Journal, Issue 30 (“Reimagination”), September 9, 2021
“Desert,” LETTERS, Yale’s journal of literature, art, and spirit, Summer 2021
“Holy Basil, Center Me,” Still Point Arts Quarterly, Winter 2020
“Dispatch from a Pandemic: Amman, Jordan,” Another Chicago Magazine, May 29, 2020
“On the Border,” Nowhere, February 2020
“A Portrait of Baghdad as Beautiful,” Silk Road Review, Vol. 21, Winter 2019
“A Book of Hours,” self-published booklet with illustrations and calligraphy by Nusra Mohammad Oudah & Rahaf Adnan Oudah, printed in Amman, Jordan, May 2019 (first printing, 325 copies; second printing, 250 copies, November 2019)
“I’ll Fly Away,” Cordella 11, Feburary 2019
“Beyond the Jordan,” River Teeth 19.2, April 2018
“Dancing over Bones,” The Windhover, February 2018
Literary city guide for Amman, Jordan, on Eat This Poem, September 2017
“Hallowed Ground,” Rock & Sling, Fall 2014
“I Share a Wall with a Dying Woman,” Ruminate, Winter 2012
“Xavier Meets the Wall,” The Literary Bohemian, Summer 2012
“Sketches of My Dad,” The Prairie Light Review, Spring 2012
“The Door of Hope,” Relief 5.2, Winter 2011
Fiction
“The Life You’ve Got,” Relief, Spring 2019
“The Pistachio Farmer’s Daughter,” Ruminate 48 (second place winner in Janet B. McCabe Short Story Contest), Fall 2018