Here’s a quick summary of what I’ve been up to lately, plus a greatest-hits of stories and other work:
I’m currently Head of Alumni Affairs at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism, a role I took on in early 2022 at the campus where I’ve also taught writing and reporting and done career coaching for students and alumni. My journalism has won many awards, including a first-place prize from the Society for Features Journalism for an article about systemic bias in medicine, and a Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award from the Society of American Travel Writers for an article about travel safety. I’ve also recently published an essay in a book called Tick Tock; edited an anti-racism publication for faculty at Fordham Law; and written stories on food and parenting, among other topics. I ghostwrite books and op-eds for individual clients, media organizations and non-profits, and I edit publications for a range of clients.
Other stuff? I’ve published my memoir with Random House, collaborated on a best-selling cookbook with Glamour mag, and written about cultural history, wine, education, food and assorted topics for Tin House, A Child Grows, Food & Wine, The New York Times, Forbes, Time, Travel + Leisure, Time Out NY and many other places. I’ve also written slogans for a United Nations sustainability campaign and created taglines for other organizations. In between I’ve squeezed in some fun Q&As about my work, like this 2023 interview for Famous Writing Routines. Some of my Food & Wine articles are anthologized in The Best Food Writing book series. If you’d like more info or want to work together, email me!
Where is home? What does "home" mean, anyway? And is it true that you can never go home again?
I spent my childhood in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war. I'd hide under my bed every night to avoid hearing the bombs blowing up my city. My family camped out for days in a basement shelter. Still, I never wanted to leave Beirut. When we eventually escaped to Texas, I convinced myself we’d be back in Lebanon within a year.
Fast-forward to my 20s and 30s: Still in the States, I was now living in Manhattan and enjoying my hectic life as a writer and editor, but I couldn’t get rid of the nagging urge to move back to Lebanon. The war had long ended, though the country was still a political hellhole. But after all these years, I still missed living along the Mediterranean Sea, and being around family and old friends, and eating za'atar bread every morning from the bakeries in my family’s Beirut neighborhood.
More than anything, I missed the sense of belonging to a place—rooted and rock-solid. I missed being home.
But was Beirut still home? Had it changed—and had I changed—too irretrievably since I'd left? Was I crazy to think I could go back and restart the life I'd left behind? Can anyone ever go back to a place, or a self, they’ve left behind?
I finally worked up the nerve to pack my bags and move back. So...what happened in Beirut? My return played out in a way I could never have imagined. Jasmine and Fire tells the story of what it was like to try to go home again—to a city as thrilling, wildly unpredictable, messy, and heartbreakingly beautiful as Beirut.
See a sample of Jasmine and Fire reviews & interviews here.
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Glamour magazine once published a recipe for roast chicken—nothing terribly complicated, just an excellent, reliable, somewhat basic recipe. And then letters started pouring in from readers (women mostly) who made the chicken for friends and lovers and…spoiler alert: Life-changing things happened. So Glamour published the recipe again, and again, and the letters kept on rolling in.
The bizarre story of the chicken—the very good, oddly life-transforming chicken—inspired Glamour to publish a cookbook. The initial idea was to name the book after the chicken recipe, but the final title made a play for a wider audience: 100 Recipes Every Woman Should Know.
As a Contributing Editor for the cookbook, I wrote and edited sections, helped choose recipes, and oversaw the test-kitchen process. Some of my own recipes are in there too.
By the way, despite the somewhat limiting title, this cookbook is for anyone who needs lots more terrific back-pocket recipes for meals, snacks and drinks to serve up to friends (or themselves) any time of day.
It’s a handy, user-friendly cookbook to have on the shelf. I still use it all the time.