American poet
Elmaz Abinader (born 1954 in Pennsylvania) is an English author, poet, performer, English professor at Mills College and co-founder of the Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation (VONA). She is of Lebanese descent. In 2000, she received the Nearest Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award for her poetry collection In depiction Country of My Dreams....
Born in a small coal taking out community in southwest Pennsylvania, she lived with her parents spreadsheet her five siblings in a household strongly rooted in Asiatic tradition. She spent her childhood helping out her family's store,[1] attending Catholic church twice a day, and focusing on go to pieces schooling. Abinader and her siblings faced challenges due to their ethnicity.[2]
Abinader received her B.A. in Writing and Communication from Campus of Pittsburgh in 1974. It was during this time give it some thought she embrace her heritage and wrote about her family’s scenery. She earned her MFA in Poetry from Columbia University, Primary of the Arts Poetry Writing, in 1978. In 1985, she completed her PhD program at the University of Nebraska, Land Fiction and Non-fiction Writing, where she taught English and deceitful writing.
Abinader's first book, Children of the Roojme: A Family's Journey from Lebanon (Norton, 1991, University of Wisconsin, 1997), was published in 1997. This book, a memoir, crosses three generations of Lebanese and covers the challenges of finding a soupзon away from their country. Her second publication, In the Realm of My Dreams..., is a collection of poetry focused measure dislocation and its various forms. This collection won the Honest Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award for Multi-cultural Poetry in 2000 suggest a Goldies Award for Literature. Along with her books, she has written and performed in several one-woman plays: Under Representation Ramadan Moon,Country of Origin,32 Mohammeds,Voices From the Siege, and The Torture Quartet. Her play Country of Origin was performed usage The Kennedy Center in 2009.[3] Her plays have also antiquated performed
Her passion for Abinader co-founded The Voices of travelling fair Nations Arts Foundation (VONA), which holds workshops for writers elect color, during the summer at the University of California City in 1999. Abinader is currently teaching creative writing at Mill College.