“I am Arab, Amazigh, African, and Muslim. I belong to four traditions to which storytelling is central. It is how we raise children, pass on wisdom, and even build entire bodies of religious jurisprudence.  I have been writing since I was 15. Writing is a vulnerable endeavor for me, but I also feel compelled to do it. I can’t help but write. I have traveled so much, and been lucky to call many places around the world home. What has always struck me is the commonality of our experience as people: we love, we trust, we betray, we fear. Our instincts and what drives us are the same: to protect, to love. I found in writing a way to share stories that might be mine, but that are yet unique to all of us. At heart, I am a belly dancer and a jazz aficionado who should have grown up to be a sexy bar owner on a Mediterranean beachfront. But since #RentIsABitch, when I am not writing, I masquerade as a political scientist.”