Zein El-Amine

Zein El-Amine is a Lebanese-born poet and writer who teaches Arab language and film at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He is also an adjunct professor of Arabic literature and history at American University, and he teaches Arabic Media and International Affairs at George Washington University. After growing up in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, Zein moved to the U.S. in 1987 and now lives in the Ella Jo Baker Intentional Community Cooperative in Washington DC.  He has facilitated many study abroad programs and taken his classes to have immersive experiences in Morocco, Egypt and Ireland.  Zein’s poems have appeared in Wild River Review, Folio, Beltway Quarterly, Foreign Policy In Focus, CityLit, and many others. His latest poetry manuscript “A Travel Guide for the Exiled” was recently shortlisted for the Bergman Prize. His short stories have appeared in Uno Mas, Jadaliyya, Middle East Report, Wild River Review, About Place Journal, Bound Off and many others. He was recently awarded The Megaphone Prize for his latest collection of short stories entitled “Is This How You Eat A Watermelon?” which will be published in October 2022. Zein has also been a long-time political activist around causes ranging from Palestinian liberation to local community organizing campaigns in Washington, DC.  Shortly after the 1999 uprising at the WTO Meeting in Seattle, he co-founded Left Turn magazine—a pivotal activist publication that ran for 10 years in the 2000s and had significant impact in helping to advance struggles for justice around the world.  He currently hosts the weekly show, Shay Wah Nana, which airs locally on DC public radio and is also syndicated worldwide on Apple podcasts.