How can SWANA writers who want to propose a panel for the annual AWP Conference & Bookfair increase their chances of success? On May 13, 2026, Susan Muaddi Darraj, who teaches English and creative writing at Harford Community College and the Johns Hopkins University and is an award-winning writer of books for adults and children, shared tips with RAWI members in a 1-hour Zoom webinar. 

How to find your people, connect with other members of the RAWI community, and escape the noise in welcoming spaces at AWP 2026 in Baltimore.

RAWI is a proud sponsor of “Hard Times Require Furious Dancing,” an offsite dance party organized by CityLit Project. Join us Friday, March 6, a short walk from the Convention Center.

Preview forthcoming titles by SWANA authors out later this year (2025), from poetry collections to novels to memoirs.

We must collectively insist that AWP adhere to its guidelines for panel selections, which are intended to avoid outsized external influence and political lobbying.

"This year, after (unbelievably) the one-year anniversary of the genocide of Gazans that began on October 7, 2023, teaching this novel has had profound resonance.”

A Palestinian American poet on a year of genocide.

"I write towards the untouchable and unknowable divine. I write against silence and erasure."

In the first half of 2025, new SWANA releases give us fresh types of stories and approaches!

May any words you write or speak this month, to yourself or others, pull you closer to life—from rubble, from loneliness or desolation—and out of despair. Whatever you might say in your life, do not delay it. Do it now. Say it now.

An Interview with Susan Muaddi Darraj, editor of Ask the Night for a Dream: Palestinian Writing from the Diaspora (Palestine Writes Press)

Writing for RAWI, Samia Saliba invites you to discover your next favorite read from this massive list of 2024 SWANA publications.

Though the formula of a query letter is fairly straightforward, a good query letter not only sums up the premise, characters, and central obstacles of a novel, but also hooks the reader while communicating the category, genre, and tone of the book.

Check out the full performer list and bios for Mizna+RAWIFest 2023!

Check out the Mizna+RAWIFest virtual gallery, featuring visual art by Arab & SWANA artists!

Mizna + RAWIFest 2023 Program. (Photo credit: Shiyam Galyon, 2019.)

The Radius of Arab American Writers stands in solidarity with Palestinians in occupied Jerusalem, Gaza, and all of historic Palestine resisting settler-colonial violence.

The Board and community of the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI) grieves the passing of an extraordinary human and literary titan: Etel Adnan.

We, at the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI), want to express our support for Palestinian liberation, today and always.

The Radius of Arab American Writers stands in solidarity with the protests across the United States following the recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others at the hands of racist police officers, civilians, and the systems that enable injustice and brutality. We must say Black Lives Matter, but we must also act on this truth.