To write, untethered, in the moment, brings serenity to my soul.

To write, is to breathe. Writing is my oxygen. – Haneen Oriqat

Walt Whitman once said, “The secret of it all, is to write in the gush, the throb, the flood, of the moment – to put things down without deliberation – without worrying about their style – without waiting for a fit time or place. I always worked that way. I took the first scrap of paper, the first doorstep, the first desk, and wrote – wrote, wrote… By writing at the instant the very heartbeat of life is caught.”

 

That is how my creative writing process works. When I feel the rush of adrenaline in any given place or moment in time and suddenly have the urgent need to write, I drop everything and write…

After receiving a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Political Science and a minor in Literature/Writing from the University of California, San Diego, I went on to receive my Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) in Creative Writing with an emphasis in Writing for Young People from Antioch University Los Angeles. I was born and raised in San Diego, California, but my writing stems from my travel and experiences growing up Muslim and a first generation American.  

My bound MFA manuscript. Dreaming of one day seeing a hardcopy in bookstores! 

Despite my sarcasm and unhealthy amount of caffeine often getting me in trouble, I have completed the manuscript for my first novel and am currently working on a second novel and memoir.

 

Check out my writing on my blog and learn more about my novel.