Mohja Kahf: (photo by Weyam Ghadbian, courtesy of the Univ. of Arkansas)After reading at Levantine Cultural Center on July 14, 2010, Mohja Kahf—a Muslim feminist par excellence—came on board as our newest cultural ambassador. She is a breath of fresh air when it comes to showing how the "clash of civilizations" argument is balderdash, and her work, whether poetry, fiction or essay, speaks volumes.

Born in Damascus, Syria, Mohja Kahf is an associate professor of comparative literature at the University of Arkansas. She has published three books: a novel, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf, a volume of poetry, E-mails from Scheherazad, and Western Representations of the Muslim Woman. Her poems have been projected on the facade of the New York Public Library, and published in more conventional venues such as Mizna, Banipal, Paris Review, Tiferet: A Journal of Literature and Spirituality, and Atlanta Review, as well as the anthology Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond from W.W. Norton, and Hayan Charara's Inclined to Speak. Some of Kahf's short fiction was online at MuslimWakeUp.com's "Sex and the Ummah" column. An Arkansas resident for the last fourteen years, Kahf has lived in the Arab world and returns there regularly with her husband and three children. Kahf's next poetry manuscript is about Hajar, Sarah, and Abraham, and she is working on a book of essays on interfaith and faith issues, called Love, Anyway: Letters from Your Muslim Aunty. In 2010 she won a Pushcart Prize for an essay about her son. Read a New York Times profile about Mohja.