Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار @ZeynJoukhadar Twitter profile

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

2 years

Thread 🧵 of where you can find me, my writing, & updates: Events & preorder links: Newsletter with reading recommendations: Goodreads: Bookbub: My website:

Books - Zeyn Joukhadar

Zeyn Joukhadar is the author of the novels The Map of Salt and Stars (Touchstone/S&S 2018) and The Thirty Names of Night (Atria/S&S 2020).

www.zeynjoukhadar.com

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

Today my partner & I found a secret beach, far away from the maskless tourists & the eyes of cis sunbathers, & I swam in the sea for the first time since my top surgery & felt I had been returned to the body I was born into & for that half hour I was blissfully, totally happy.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

5 years

Every time you start typing “women & non-binary people” then stop, realize that it doesn’t make sense to lump enbies in with women, & write “people of marginalized genders” instead, an angel gets their wings.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

I am trans not as in crossing from point a to point b (tho that’s equally valid if that’s true for you!), but trans as in infinite journey, endless exploration, liberation from gender gatekeeping/policing/borders. Trans as in freedom to play, discover, exist with no destination.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

1 year

One thing I think about a lot is how often the work of marginalized writers gets reduced to and given lip service as “representation” or “visibility” or being about “identity” because more privileged writers cannot—or will not—see the innovations of craft that go into our work—

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

Every book I write, I have to remind myself that sometimes we don't go into a project with the skills we need to execute it. We have to go study what we have to learn, practice new craft skills, read new critique. We can let the work guide our growth & make us better artists.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

3 years

A year ago, on the first day of Ramadan, I said bismillah & took my first dose of testosterone—feeling grateful that every year from now on will be another reminder of that day I decided to trust in the divine & hope that joy was possible. Ramadan mubarak 💚✨

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

3 years

Something I think about a lot is how many of us are socialized into believing we can only make life changes based on how miserable we are—that pain is the only valid reason for change—when in reality we can also move toward the possibility for greater joy. Even a glimmer of it.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

Trans kids in Arkansas & everywhere, I love you & I see you & you aren’t alone. Don’t forget that this isn’t the first time they’ve tried to erase us & kill us & failed. I want you here with me, with us. Don’t lose hope. There are beautiful things ahead for you. Hold on.

ACLU

@ACLU

4 years

BREAKING: Arkansas has become the first state to ban health care for trans youth.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

6 years

I honestly have no words for how it feels to see my *real name*--the one I bestowed on myself--on my book cover. Thank you, thank you, thank you @AtriaBooks & every single loved one & reader who gave me their support 🌈 ✨ #TheMapofSaltandStars #transauthors #syrianamerican

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

8 months

This is the statement we wrote &, as the @RAWInews board, sent to other writers & colleagues as a customizable template text with an invitation to speak up about the ongoing genocide in Palestine. But this carefully considered statement says much more than just that--

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

I cried so much when I got this news. It’s meant so much to me to see this book, which I was once too afraid to write, received by readers with such love & now to be recognized with a Stonewall Book Award. & in this incredible company of writers!! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

ALA's Rainbow RT

@GLBTRT

4 years

Congratulations to the winner of the Barbara Gittings Stonewall Book Award, The Thirty Names of Night, by Zeyn Joukhadar! #Stonewall50 #ALAMW2021 #alaMW21 @ZeynJoukhadar 🌈🎉

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

2 years

I can’t even tell you how hard it is to write a novel about trans futures while watching my existence and daily life as a human being becoming increasingly illegal across the United States. How are trans people (especially bipoc) expected to function, let alone create anything?

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

5 years

I have 🥳🌈 BIG NEWS!! 🌈🥳 My second novel, THE THIRTY NAMES OF NIGHT, out 19 May 2020 from @atriabooks , is up for preorder!! It follows three generations of Syrian Americans linked by a mysterious species of bird, with an almost entirely #qtpoc cast! 😻

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

3 years

Farewell Etel Adnan. You were a lighthouse for so many of us, especially young queer Arab artists. When you said “I am making the mountain as people make a painting,” I understood something about the making of myself. ألف شكر 🖤

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

1 year

For the love of god, don’t say “the lgbt community” when you mean trans. If you’re talking about trans people, say trans. If you’re talking about trans women, say trans women. Don’t hide behind vague language when they’re literally killing us

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

3 years

I don’t think people in the U.S. realize that people who live outside the U.S.—esp poc—are often genuinely scared to travel there b/c of the danger of mass shootings & police violence & major financial trouble in case of illness. Like, I’ve got loved ones terrified to even visit.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

Last year, I went into anaphylactic shock in LA. I had 20 mins to get to a hospital before my epi-pen wore off. A cop who arrived w the paramedics laughed & accused me of faking. The paramedics debated whether to take me or not. With this new rule, they could've left me to die.

Katelyn Burns

@transscribe

4 years

And just like that, the Trump administration defines sex as defined by biology and wipes out health care discrimination protections for all trans people in the US.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

5 years

A small reminder not to lump nonbinary people with women in application calls, anthologies, residencies, etc. If you mean people of marginalized genders, say that. Also, a reminder that enbies who use binary pronouns exist (I use he/him!) & we are no less valid. 👋🏽🌈 #pride2019

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

5 years

Hi, I’m Zeyn, #IAmNonbinary & I also write books 🤗 I’m Syrian American, Muslim, & use he/him pronouns. My second novel #TheThirtyNamesofNight also has a transmasc protagonist & comes out May 19 2020 from @AtriaBooks ✨🌈

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

3 years

In which I seek God in my trans body, comb Rome for my father's ghost & surrender to the sacredness of my transness as one accepts a gift. Less an essay than a descent into the underworld, searching for the seed of what is good in the self. @CatapultStory

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

6 years

A brief reminder to cis allies to offer to accompany your trans friends to the bathroom in spaces with gendered restrooms. I got trapped in a men’s room & screamed at last night bc one guy decided I didn’t belong. I’m ok, luckily, but having a friend in there would have helped.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

7 months

Good morning! I am still in shock that I get to be on the Fiction judging panel for the National Book Awards this year!! I cannot wait to read your books!!

National Book Foundation

@nationalbook

7 months

2024 #NBAwards Fiction judges: Jamie Ford ( @JamieFord ), Lauren Groff (Chair, @legroff ), Zeyn Joukhadar ( @zeynjoukhadar ), Chawa Magaña (from @palabras_books ), Reginald McKnight

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

3 years

Omg y’all I am freaking out thank you so much!!!! 🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭🥰🥰🥰

Lambda Literary

@LambdaLiterary

3 years

And the winner in Transgender Fiction is... The Thirty Names of Night - @ZeynJoukhadar Buy The Thirty Names of Night here!

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

3 years

To the people who write to me to tell me they like my work but "just can't accept" the transness in it: good news! You needn't bother, because I don't care.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

3 years

Omg what!!!!! Ahhhhhhh if you could hear the screaming over here omg thank you so much @LambdaLiterary !!!! 😭😭😭💜💜💜🌈🌈🌈

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

Do any other writers/artists out there worry that you're going to die before you can finish the project you're working on & your ghost will be mortified by the messy draft you've left behind, or am I just a morbid weirdo? Ok you know what don't answer that last question

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

Tear gas is associated with miscarriages & stillbirths. It is a suspected abortifacient & a chemical weapon. According to the 1925 Geneva Protocol, it‘s illegal to use on the battlefield. Yet it’s still being used on protestors in the US. From @TeenVogue :

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

3 years

Existing as an out trans person & being an activist are not the same thing. We rly need to talk more about how shared identity =\= shared politics, & how often this leads to problematic people being tokenized & weaponized against other marginalized people by the dominant culture

The New York Times

@nytimes

3 years

Breaking News: Caitlyn Jenner, the Republican former Olympian and prominent transgender activist, is set to run for California governor, those close to her said.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

2 years

Write toward the thing you don’t yet have the words to say.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

1 year

The complex and innovative work of marginalized writers often gets written off as simplistic or without larger cultural / social relevance simply because dominant culture writers cannot conceive of the fact that what we are doing on the page was not written with them in mind.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

I feel weird announcing this today when I'm glued to the screen watching the election results coming in, but I also know that no matter what happens, we have to celebrate our joys when we find them--friends, #TheThirtyNamesOfNight made the Indie Next List! I am 😭💝😭💝😭💝

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

2 years

Pro-tip: if you see someone at the beach with their shirt off and you feel confused by their gender, maybe don't be a cop and ask the lifeguard to gender police them!! maybe just mind your business!!

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

I... won’t be on here as much for a bit. A loved one of someone in my chosen family passed away from covid this morning. He was young, had just started his first job, & covid sent him into heart failure. Young people are not safe from this thing. I am begging you: WEAR A MASK.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

7 months

“We no longer pursue, or partake in, empathy. Empathy is the executioner’s word. Our word is love.”

Mizna

@Mizna_ArabArt

7 months

"On Execution" by @El_Gendy_95 Invoking his political imprisonment in Egypt and thinking alongside Solmaz Sharif's work on the failures of Western empathy, ElGendy questions a society that is incapable extending the political action Palestinians demand.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

5 years

I can’t believe I just walked out of the DMV with my new license, with my new gender marker on it. I never, ever thought, at the beginning of 2019, that by the end of the year I’d be able to access top surgery & change my gender marker. Alhamdulillah. Just humbled & grateful rn

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

1 year

Apparently THE MAP OF SALT AND STARS was used without my consent to train AI & I am livid. The astonishing levels of entitlement. To steal, esp. from writers of color like me who took YEARS to find ways of writing about pain & joy & trauma—just to have our very *voices* stolen.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

3 years

Check up on your queer and trans friends. Because chances are that a lot of us are going to be stuck inside with toxic families of origin during the holidays, in situations where we are closed off from the support of friends & chosen family. Or otherwise have no place to go.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

3 years

It’s here & its beautiful! The Portuguese translation of #TheMapOfSaltAndStars is out with @dublinense ! 🥺😻✨

Sem Spoiler

@semspoiler_

3 years

"O mapa de sal e estrelas", de @ZeynJoukhadar , foi lançado! Na trama, acompanhamos as jornadas intercaladas de uma jovem forçada a deixar a Síria em busca de segurança e de uma aprendiz de cartografia que traçou a mesma rota quase mil anos antes. Compre:

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

1 year

For the @The_NewArab , I wrote about the time I went looking for the ghost of the mosque on Rector Street in lower Manhattan, who gets to choose their silences, and what remains of Little Syria:

What remains of New York's Little Syria?

Once a bustling congregation of Arabs in the heart of New York, the city's Syrian quarter has now all but vanished, save for a few relics. But what do these last remaining mementoes tell us about the...

www.newarab.com

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

Omg I FINALLY got my mom a vaccine appointment alhamdulillah!!! 😭😭😭

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

8 years

I’m beyond thrilled to announce my debut novel THE MAP OF HOPEFUL BROKEN THINGS has found a home w/ @TrishTodd718 at @TouchstoneBooks (S&S)!

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

3 years

I've reached the stage of my transition where I've rediscovered the joys of bright red lipstick & crop tops. Unexpectedly, transition has smashed the long-locked doors of my femmeness. Cisnormativity really tries to keep us from seizing all our wild gender joy & I'm mad about it

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

1 year

I need everybody who ever tried to stop me from transitioning by repeating the tired TERF talking point that all masculinity is toxic & that testosterone would make me into a violent predator to go read this gorgeous essay by @rabblerouses in @ElectricLit

Masculinity Is the Soft and Vulnerable Thing Inside Me - Electric Literature

If anything was poisoning me, it was the mantle of womanhood that was forced upon me

electricliterature.com

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

I just woke up to the news that #TheThirtyNamesOfNight has gone into its *third printing* ahead of pub date, & I'm 🥺🥺🥺🥰🥰🥰 Y'all, baby Zeyn could never have imagined this kind of support for such an unapologetically trans, Arab, Muslim book. Thank you!! 😌🦉🏳️‍⚧️✨ @AtriaBooks

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

Thinking about how Boseman worked while he was sick & in pain & I‘m angry. Abled people don’t think about what it’s like to hide symptoms of chronic illness to keep a job (& benefits), to fear judgment & disappointment, or the self doubt this creates. Let’s not romanticize this.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

2 years

I’m really tired of being sad, angry, exhausted & scared & then going on social media to see people who are supposedly my allies sharing things like “if men could get pregnant” / “I wish sons periods, cramps etc so they’d understand” Do you still not get that trans people exist??

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

2 years

You guys I’m so close to the end of this draft, pray for me that I can get to the end before Ramadan starts 😭🙏🏼

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

I still think about the people who removed themselves from my life when I came out. I remember their birthdays. I still make dua for them. I have nothing else to say except I am tired, I miss people, & outness is not something we can expect glibly from folks. It comes w/ a price.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

5 years

When I was a kid & didn't yet have language for what it meant to be nonbinary, to be transmasculine, Alanna was one of my secret heroes. She even partially inspired the character of Rawiya (& her disguise as the mapmaker's apprentice, Rami) in #TheMapofSaltandStars . 🌈

Tamora Pierce

@TamoraPierce

5 years

Alanna has always defied labels. She took the best bits of being a woman and a man, and created her own unique identity. I think the term is 'gender-fluid', though there wasn't a word for this (to my knowledge) when I was writing her.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

7 years

OH. MY. GOD. My debut novel, #TheMapofSaltandStars , is available for preorder on Amazon. This is really happening. 😱😱😱😱😱😱

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

8 months

Just so y’all know, I’m going to be masked the entire time I’m at AWP. Nobody is going to see me without a mask, sorry not sorry! (PS, It’s not too late for you to do the same!)

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

2 years

I usually have a lot of anxiety that I’m not enough—smart enough, good enough, etc—to tell the story I’m trying to tell. I always fear the themes are bigger than me & the story is smarter than me. But then I remember my job isn’t to control the story, but to get out of its way.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

Omg!! #TheThirtyNamesOfNight is a finalist for the Lammys!!! 🥺🥰🤩😭🥳🦉🪶 And in such amazing company!!!

Lambda Literary

@LambdaLiterary

4 years

Congratulations to @ninocipri @PorterChana @vivekshraya @ZeynJoukhadar @LydiaRogue finalists for the 2021 Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Fiction! #Lammys @TorDotComPub @soho_press @ecwpress @atriabooks @Microcosmmm

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

6 months

The wild thing to me is that cis people think “gender ideology” is a thing trans people are doing. All trans people are doing is literally just existing. The only “ideology” here is the one that denies reality to pretend we don’t exist. Does the Vatican have nothing better to do?

The Associated Press

@AP

6 months

BREAKING: The Vatican blasts sex change surgery, surrogacy and gender theory as grave threats to human dignity

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

2 years

Omg I did it, I wrote the new opening of this novel. Revisions are underway after all these months of planning! So many months spent scrabbling to survive this horrible world afraid that words had abandoned me but they didn’t, they didn’t

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

1 year

I have more to say about how this is tied to inclusion of / analysis through the body & embodied experience, & who gets to be free of their bodies on the page vs who cannot afford to divorce what they know about the world from embodied knowledge, but we’ll do that another day lol

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

3 years

@jenstjude My novel The Thirty Names of Night has a love story between two queer Arab women in their 90s who find each other after being separated by borders for decades 🥺 someone called it “grandmas in love” & I love it lol!!

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

1 year

Don't mind me, I'm just over here getting emotional about mentoring emerging writers of color for a 4th (!!) year with @PeriplusCollect --applications for 2024 fellows are open now!!!

Periplus

@PeriplusCollect

1 year

Psst: The application for the 2024 Periplus Fellowship — offering mentorship and community to writers of color — is now open! 🥳 Learn more and apply by 10/27 at . There's no fee to apply. And please help spread the word: retweets and other sharing welcome!

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

Having a hard time understanding people saying the pandemic has “helped therm learn to slow down,” or that they’ve gotten more work done... Like bro, I’m happy for you but my housing situation, visa/legal status, & marriage are all fucked?? My entire life was ripped apart???

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

3 years

I really wish people would stop calling me a man lol I’ve never actually called myself that. He/him pronouns doesn’t automatically = man. Maybe give me the space to figure out my gender before you declare it for me (or anyone)

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

My mom really ended this call last night by joyfully shouting at me & my partner, "the gender binary is bullshit & you are amazing & I love you so much" & honestly this is the energy I'm bringing for my loved ones in 2021

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

I am so tired of marginalized creators being expected to perform & market our trauma, expected to risk harm to speak up when institutions make decisions that enable violence against us, & then have to fear the repercussions of pushing back b/c we’re so often seen as disposable.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

2 years

Hey all, I’m taking a break from social media for the next couple of weeks as I deal with a family health emergency. Appreciate any thoughts you can send my way & also appreciate lots of patience w replies, as I most likely won’t be responsive for a bit. Much love💜

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

3 years

You know the Frank O’Hara poem where he writes about orange & goes “There should be/so much more, not of orange, of/words, of how terrible orange is/& life,” & the poem can hold neither his pain nor the orange? Not to be earnest on main but that line break makes me cry every time

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

2 years

If you’re expecting an email or work from me, please be patient—I have covid & despite everyone saying it’s “not that bad” I am really really sick. If you see me on here it’s bc doomscrolling to see if I still have human rights is one of the only things I can do from bed

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

Look mom, I’m in the @washingtonpost !! 😍😱 “ #TheThirtyNamesOfNight is a multifaceted jewel of a novel, & each facet is brilliant in its own way... This incredibly courageous novel reminds us of the dignity we all deserve” @AtriaBooks 💓🌈🦉💫

Review | Zeyn Joukhadar’s ‘The Thirty Names of Night’ is a poetic portrait of a trans man’s search...

Part ghost story, part mystery, “The Thirty Names of Night” is also an exposé on systemic racism and an honest account of the LGBTQ and refugee experience.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

3 years

The people who used my pronouns right away, even if they slipped up, still get them right without issue. The people who “needed time” or said they’d use my pronouns after I passed an arbitrary benchmark? Still don’t use them. So like, save ur energy for the ppl who show up for u

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

Just found out one of my close friends was injured in the explosion in Beirut & am feeling overwhelmed by distance, by the pandemic, by violence, by disaster. I can’t take much more of this hell year. Hamdullah for the strangers who care for our habayib when we can’t be there.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

2 years

"I know of عيب. I know the sting of it on the flesh. I also know the sweetness of its smoke, how its song rings in the throat, how to let the first note blaze out." My essay from @Elias_Jahshan 's #ThisArabIsQueer is up online at @ArcherMagazine now 💜

Catching the light: Reclaiming opera as a trans Arab

The heart of this story is a karaoke booth in LA’s Koreatown where four queer Arabs are belting Queen at the top of our lungs.

archermagazine.com.au

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

I can't describe to you the joy of trying clothes/styles that I hated before I had top surgery & discovering that I now love them. Like hbb I just bought a turtleneck & my first pair of skinny overalls EVER. This outfit makes me look gay as hell & I love it so much 😭

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

7 years

And guys? While we read all these awesome pitches (SO AWESOME), let's also thank @beth_phelan for all her hard work to make #DVPit happen.👏🏽

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

7 years

So my debut novel #TheMapofSaltandStars is up for preorder on Amazon with its drop-dead gorgeous US cover 😱😱😱 #dvsquad @DVpit_ @TouchstoneBooks @michellebrower @devislaskar @SarahXman22 @cocoazafreen @vonacommunity @ElmazWrites @Mizna_ArabArt @RAWInews

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

6 years

Barely slept last night. Thinking of the families who were lost. Thinking of my Muslim family members and friends who are waking up this morning and, like me, feeling just a little less safe. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

1 year

Plus being unable to use a bathroom & holding your pee for hours in order to work, travel, or just live results in higher rates of UTIs & bladder infections in trans ppl & complicates things for those of us who menstruate. & since it’s already harder for us to access healthcare…

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

2 years

The disrespect with which @jbakernyc was treated by HC is appalling. Jenn is one of the most talented, knowledgeable, compassionate, & hard working publishing industry professionals I’ve ever met, & she 100% deserves better than this. As do Black women in publishing in general.

Jenn Baker (she/her)

@jbakernyc

2 years

Hey everyone! I’m back online from hiatus and it's been an interesting few weeks. As I'm sure some have been wondering (and asking), I wanted to make sure to set the record straight on why I am no longer at Amistad. Buckle up for a thread… #ICYMI

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

We need Palestinian stories. They were always needed, they have always been written. Palestinian words have always survived. We need Palestinian futurisms, Palestinian queerness & transness, Black Palestinian brilliance, Palestinian speculative fiction & fabulism. We need it all.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

1 year

Eid mubarak loves!! I celebrated last night with a queer iftar with dear friends and it was absolutely everything my soul needed 🥺 I wish that kind of love, peace, acceptance and joy for all my queer Muslim siblings this Eid 💚🤲🏼

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

1 year

Okay quick question, do I know / know anyone who knows a photographer in NYC who does headshots, preferably for writers? And is trans friendly? It's been a few years and I've been on HRT for two years and I'm tired of people using pre-T photos for me 🥲 it's time

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

8 months

Last nite at the @Mizna_ArabArt @RAWInews Palestine reading, I read my poem "Trans heaven is a house full of flowers & no word for shame" + an excerpt of this soul nourishing poem by my dear friend, Palestinian poet @rashaabdulhadi . You should read it:

Rasha Abdulhadi — Poetry Online

Rasha Abdulhadi is calling on you, dear reader, to join them in refusing and resisting the genocide of the Palestinian people. Wherever you are, whatever sand you can throw on the gears of genocide,...

poetry.onl

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

In proud solidarity with @GWCUAW strikers fighting for wage increases, healthcare, & crucial changes to @Columbia 's handling of sexual misconduct, I & my fellow writers have decided to cancel this event & any others until workers' demands are met. @rokwon @GarthGreenwell

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

5 years

Today’s the day! See you on other side folks, I’ve gotta go get something off my chest ✌🏼👋🏼🌈 (Also, my new chest will be a Scorpio & I feel like that’s kinda perfect?)

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

5 years

Today is the 2 yr anniversary of my coming out as trans. I was living in Morocco at the time. I wish I could go back & tell past me that it was going to be alright. Wish I could thank them for their faith. For their resilience. For trusting that we would make it through.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

1 year

Cis people, I am begging you, think before you defend writing about trans people (or gender) as abstract concepts or expediencies. “Tolkien didn’t have to see elves to write about them!” Bro, it’s not the own you think it is to imply that you don’t see trans people as human.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

Apologies for being vague, but I’m doing something today that feels big and scary & is also a huge important step toward a new, hopefully better version of my life, one with more self love, empowerment, & bodily autonomy. Send good thoughts &/or rituals for big life steps?

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

3 years

I feel like there’s so little place these days for joy for joy’s sake but honestly I love my chronically ill, Arab, trans body so much. I used to think everyone hated having a body & my dysphoria & sadness was part of the human condition, but no. & I’m so glad I was wrong.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

2 years

Anybody know any outlets that are into queer, short prose/poetic takes on pop culture? I wrote a thing about the trans metaphors in Luca that I continue to be lowkey obsessed with & have no idea what to do with it lol

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

5 years

I just had a moment when I posted this, like, if I had had this book when I was 15, how different my life might have looked. How much sooner I might have been able to love myself. That’s what I want for folks coming after me—mirrors.

Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

5 years

@claystorks @VanshikaPrusty My second novel (out Aug 2020 from @AtriaBooks ), THE THIRTY NAMES OF NIGHT, has a nonbinary trans guy lead (also Muslim & poc), as well as a binary trans man of color as a love interest :) 🏳️‍🌈✨

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

An offering for your Friday afternoon reading: there’s a brand new excerpt of my new novel THE THIRTY NAMES OF NIGHT out in @GuernicaMag about women who build flying machines & queer girls growing up in the 1930s against the backdrop of a rebellion in French mandate-era Syria.

Guernica Magazine

@GuernicaMag

4 years

“Let me start over. I was born on a sunny day in early March of 1920, the day Emir Faysal declared Syria to be an independent Arab state... You never knew my birthday, did you?” An excerpt of THE THIRTY NAMES OF NIGHT by @ZeynJoukhadar .

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

8 months

to the transphobic violence enacted in the state in which we are gathering for #AWP24 . I don’t see how this statement is threatening or harassing, as AWP’s response seems to imply, nor why an exercise of free speech merited such a response on the part of a writing conference.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

3 years

First weekend of pride month & I gotta say, aside from being able to walk/exercise/not constantly dissociate, my fave thing post top surgery is probably crop tops, lacy bralettes, & just generally having a body to decorate, one that’s for me & no one else. I love being trans 💜🙌🏽

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

1 year

I really don’t understand why a) I’m not seeing almost any cis people posting about the massive Republican pushes to ban care for adult trans people, and b) given that trans people saw this coming from a mile away, why there isn’t a more concerted push from the left to stop it.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

8 months

It connects the ongoing violence in Palestine with the logics underpinning the genocides of Indigenous peoples in Sudan, Congo (& Ethiopia, Armenia & elsewhere) as well as on Turtle Island. It acknowledges how Black liberatory thought & practice has shaped our vision of freedom &

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

1 year

This will protect 0 cis people. What it will do is shove trans people into a legal black hole where we can be pushed out of public life, subjected to the prison industrial complex, denied health care, housing, & employment, & systematically neglected & killed with impunity.

Them

@them

1 year

Kansas Republicans forced through one of the nation’s most extreme — and incoherent — anti-transgender bills this week.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

1 year

I’m so psyched for y’all to read my modern day retelling of the story of Tiresias as a gay trans guy at a party gone horribly wrong in Liguria—complete with snakes, gender bending, sex, & animal sacrifice. As any Greek story should be, no?

Tor.com (Now at @Reactormag)

@tordotcom

1 year

We’re thrilled to reveal the cover of FIT FOR THE GODS, an anthology of inclusive retellings of Greek myths, edited by Jenn Northington and S. Zainab Williams — available August 1st from @vintageanchor

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

I can’t believe I’m doing this but uh, it looks like I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year for the first time in like, five years? & it has jinn in it, & scientists, & a queer ensemble cast who are all into each other? Pray for me friends 😳

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

4 years

Dear trans, nonbinary, gnc, &/or 2S person: I hope you are surrounded by people who make you feel easy to love.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

5 years

One thing I wish more folks would understand about abortion & men: do you realize how much harder it is to access obgyn/abortion services as a trans man? Esp when you’re visibly trans? Most of us CAN get pregnant. we are equally if not more terrified of losing our tenuous access.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

2 years

Tell me you’re white without telling me you’re white

Pedro L. Gonzalez

@emeriticus

2 years

It really feels like Millennials were the last people who got a largely apolitical high school experience. I don’t remember anything political, just a bubble of blissful ignorance. “Jackass” and Blink-182 were popular. The main concern was asking out your crush.

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Zeyn Joukhadar | زين جوخدار

@ZeynJoukhadar

6 years

Today my labor of love, my debut novel #TheMapofSaltandStars , is out in the world. I'm excited, joyful, terrified, & proud at fulfilling a lifelong dream. But my book doesn't belong just to me anymore. A piece of it belongs to everyone who reads it: to you & you & you & you.

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