Eman Quotah

Eman Quotah’s debut novel, Bride of the Sea, won the Arab American Book Award for fiction in 2022. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, USA Today, The Rumpus, The Markaz Review, Mizna, and other publications. When she’s not writing fiction or essays, Eman is a communications consultant and ghost writer for nonprofit and business leaders. She’s also a board member of RAWI, the Radius of Arab American Writers. She lives with her family near Washington, D.C.

21 February, 2025 • Eman Quotah

Palestinian Equals Arab Equals Human: on Najwan Darwish

The poetry of Najwan Darwish is “at once anti-nationalist yet profoundly and personally invested in the Palestinian cause."

23 August, 2024 • Eman Quotah

Birth in a Poem: Maram Al-Masri’s The Abduction

When a mother loses her child she can become inconsolable, living a desolate life, as she works for his return.

25 March, 2024 • Eman Quotah

Fady Joudah’s […] Dares Us to Listen to Palestinian Words—and Silences

Eman Quotah on Fady Joudah's latest, in which the poet takes on the inadequacy of language in conveying the pain and hope of Palestinians today.

23 October, 2023 • Eman Quotah

What We Write About When We (Arabs) Write About Love

Eman Quotah reviews a new anthology of love poems by Arab poets writing in English in the diaspora and in country.

5 September, 2022 • Eman Quotah

After Marriage, Single Arab American Woman Looks for Love

Eman Quotah reviews the new poetry collection by Jordanian Palestinian American author Laila Halaby.

4 July, 2022 • Eman Quotah

Poems of Palestinian Motherhood, Loss, Desire and Hope

Eman Quotah reviews the new poetry collection from Palestinian poet Maya Abu-Alhayyat, translated by Fady Joudah.

20 June, 2022 • Eman Quotah

A Poet and Librarian Catalogs Life in Gaza

Eman Quotah reviews "Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza" — the debut poetry collection of Mosab Abu Toha.

2 May, 2021 • Eman Quotah

In Search of Knowledge, Mazid Travels to Baghdad, Jerusalem, Cairo, Granada and Córdoba

Reviewer Eman Quotah finds that Omaima Al-Khamis' "singular imagination shines through in an erudite and sensual tale that captures a complex moment in Islamic history."

14 December, 2020 • Eman Quotah

You Drive Me Crazy, from “Bride of the Sea”

In this debut novel Eman Quotah practically delivers an epic as she writes about a Saudi family, torn between Arab and American identities and culture clashes.