Mohja Kahf

Mohja Kahf was born in Damascus, Syria, and emigrated to the US as a child with her parents, both university students. She took her doctorate in comparative literature from Rutgers University. Her debut novel, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf (2006), was voted book of the year for 2008 in Bloomington, Indiana. Her poetry volume, E-mails from Sheherazad (2003) was a finalist in the Paterson Prize. Her next volume of poetry, The Hagar Poems, is about Hajar, Ibrahim, Sarah, and their diverse descendents. She teaches at the University of Arkansas, where she is an associate professor, introducing such courses as The Pluralistic Legacy of Islamic Spain, Quran and Literature, Modern Arabic Novel, and Arab Women Writers. In 1999 she published a volume of literary criticism Western Representations of the Muslim Woman: From Termagant to Odalisque (University of Texas Press). Her essay, The Caul of Inshallah,” published in the River Teeth journal, USA, has been selected for reprint in Pushcart Prize XXXV.