Bio

Elmaz Abinader has a memoir: Children of the Roojme, A Family’s Journey from Lebanon, and two books of poetry, In the Country of My Dreams…winner of PEN Oakland and This House, my Bones. Find recent work at Humans & Nature, Taos Journal of Poetry, Red Door Magazine, Terrain and Michigan Quarterly Review, and more. Named “Trailblazer” by RAWI (Radius of Arab Writers International, Elmaz has created spaces and opportunities to amplify the voices of writers of the global majority (BIPOC). Elmaz teaches at Mills College at Northeastern University and was a co-founder of VONA/Voices. She has also been teaching fitness for over thirty years.

Project

Elmaz is using the residency to complete her novel, *Almost a Life*—a two-part story exploring the weight of waiting. Set during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990), it follows a young woman whose fiancé flees to America, promising to send for her once his papers are finalized. That takes four years. Four years of navigating violence, losing family and friends, and trying to live through constant horror and insecurity. When she finally arrives in the States, the world and her husband are new unknows. This intimate narrative captures the particular burden of displacement—especially for women caught between one life and another.