Arab Americans

Marian Haddad

Marian Haddad, M.F.A, is a poet, essayist, visiting writer, manuscript and publishing consultant, private writing mentor, creative writing workshop instructor, public speaker, and artistic-event coordinator. Her works have been published in various journals and periodicals including The Texas Observer, The Rio Grande Review, Sin Fronteras/Writers Without Borders, Bat City Review, and Mizna. Her poems and essays have appeared in anthologies including Stories from Where We Live: The California Coast (Milkweed Editions); Is This Forever or What: Poems & Paintings from Texas (Greenwillow Books); Scheherazade’s Legacy: Arab and Arab-American Women on Writing (Praeger); Pride of Place (University of North Texas Press); San Antonio in Color (Trinity University Press); Between Heaven and Texas (UT Press); Poetry Calendar 2007, Poetry Calendar 2008, and Poetry Calendar 2009 (Alhambra Publishing, Brussels); A Students’ Treasury of Texas Poetry (TCU Press); Art at Our Doorstep: San Antonio Writers and Artists (Trinity University Press); and Inclined to Speak (University of Arkansas Press) and are forthcoming in a number of journals and anthologies. A feature chapter on Marian Haddad, her writing and opinions on writing, appears in The Good Writer’s Kit published by National Geographic School Publishing (previously Hampton-Brown); Marian Haddad has also written for The State of Texas via Pearson Educational Measurement.

Her poem, We Are Born with Names, was included in a theater performance entitled Lost Recipes, a production whose efforts were to create dialogue between Jewish and Arabic women. Her chapbook, Saturn Falling Down, compiled under the request of Texas Public Radio in correlation with their Hands-On Poetry Workshops, was printed in April 2003 as a limited edition. Her first full-length collection of poems, Somewhere between Mexico and a River Called Home was published in 2004 by Pecan Grove Press and approaches its fourth printing (Top Five Book List, El Paso Times October 2004; recommended book by both Valparaiso Review and Small Press Review).

Marian has taught creative writing at Our Lady of the Lake University and Northwest Vista College and International Literature at St. Mary’s University. She has been invited to speak and lecture or has held positions as a visiting writer or guest speaker at local schools and institutions including: University of the Incarnate Word, St. Mary’s University, The Institute of Texan Cultures, San Antonio Ecumenical Council, The Winston School of San Antonio, St. Mary’s Hall, St. Luke’s Episcopal School, San Antonio Society of Arts and Letters, The University of Texas at San Antonio, and San Antonio College.

Previous national appearances include speaking at Tufts University in Boston, The Border Literature Monte Series at Texas A&M Laredo, The Nature Writers’ Series at The University of North Texas, The American-Arab Anti-Discriminatory Committee Conference in Washington, D.C., The El Paso Writers’ League, COAS Books in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and DG WILLS BOOKS in La Jolla, California. She read her work and was featured on a panel entitled, “Is Everything Political?” hosted by Radius of Arab-American Writers at Hunter College in New York City.

Haddad received her B.A. in Creative Writing and her Secondary English Certification from The University of Texas at El Paso. She was awarded an endowment from The National Endowment for the Humanities to study philosophy at the graduate level through an NEH Seminar at The University of Notre Dame. She participated in graduate studies at Emerson College in The Prose Poem and earned her M.F.A in Creative Writing — Poetry and Creative Non-Fiction at San Diego State University where she served as an associate editor for Poetry International Vol. III. She has taught high school in San Elizario, Texas and founded and directed The Writing Center at Bowie High School, five minutes from the US/Mexico Border.

She has co-produced and moderated Telly-Award winning television shows for San Diego’s Instructional Television which currently air and which focus on renowned poets dialoguing with young students of poetry. She has moderated television shows on the arts for programs aired on San Antonio’s Cable Channel 20. Her work has been profiled on internet radio (WSRADIO) and onThe Hallmark Channel, as well as other media venues. Haddad was featured as Arab-American of the Month (Feb. 2006) by Shems Magazine alongside actors Tony Shalhoub and Kathy Najimy and Dr. James Zogby