Had a dream and now I'm about to make a huge change to the novel that will, in essence, alter its entire nature, to the point that its name will be changed too, but it feels like the right thing to do and I'm excited at its new potential

My top 14 books of this year, may it serve your ever-growing TBR pile well✌🏽

For BOMB Magazine, I got to write in Tahrir Square about the great @therakha.net upcoming novel The Dissenters (Graywolf), & how the novel ties in with the long lineage of using storytelling as a revolutionary form. Last piece of the year, and hopefully a banger! bombmagazine.org/articles/202...

Real question rmthat we're all thinking about is... why did Jenzo have to cook so much with this piece?!?!

bombmagazine.org/articles/nel... didn’t do a lot of creating this tough year but as I was slowly healing, I managed to put together this Editor’s Choice on Pepe, a truly unique film, one perfect for those who love to see the medium pushed to its limits. and for hippo enthusiasts aka me

For BOMB Magazine, I got to write in Tahrir Square about the great @therakha.net upcoming novel The Dissenters (Graywolf), & how the novel ties in with the long lineage of using storytelling as a revolutionary form. Last piece of the year, and hopefully a banger! bombmagazine.org/articles/202...

A small little sneak peak of my BOMB Mag reflection on The Dissenters, @therakha.net beautifully haunting novel that has possessed me over this summer, this autumn, and perhaps this lifetime, physical copies of the reflection should be out, and the online review is out in the coming days✌🏽

Azabekya Garden night book haul before returning to NY in a few days, led by the eternal literary master @therakha.net

I got a gut feeling that when I'm finished with this novel draft & find the right agent for it, we're really going to stir up the game, & then when I tell said agent about the next two novels already in the works & how wild they get, they'll seriously see something very little seen.

here is a comic i made about cairo some time ago, because cities with long memories remind me all we live through is just the blink of an eye (1/6)

Thinking about monster reborning this account, still deciding...

‘We know you’re in there, we saw what you did.’ Reading this piece is like finding a gorgeous little morel. So action packed yet atmospheric?? @nsahmed99.bsky.social in Passages North www.passagesnorth.com/passagesnort...

New piece about birds and dystopia and noir is out at Passages North, really grateful for this one since it was initially written for a contest about flight, and it ended up making its way here! Hope you read it, and if you see a bird, feed it some crumbs!! www.passagesnorth.com/passagesnort...

VICTORY SCREEECHHHH!!! We got a new piece accepted in Passages North babyyyyy!!! It's a little piece about birds and government and dystopia and a hint of old-fashioned noir, a bit of a new style for little old me, so looking forward to sharing it with y'all soon enough!

Just did the KGB reading with the peripal crew tonight, first one ever since I came back, and while it was an... interesting night... I did get to debut read the dog story!!!

Genuinely one of the most life-changing literary opportunities that I am deeply proud to be a part of. From the mentorship to dear friends to the non-stop growth, I ~HIGHLY~ recommend you ~APPLY~ to it!!! Happy to offer insights to any prospective applicants! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Imagine my surprise when I got the email that my little dog story was longlisted to the top seven out of 500 subs, eternally grateful to the folks who read my piece for this contest and let it reach this far! And hey, if you want the piece for your pub, it's still up for grabs!!!

Now when I go back to the US, what's about to happen? Will I (a) be speaking to folks in Arabic by impulse or (b) try and price negotiate the poor folks at Barnes and Nobles or (c) look sadly upon all the imported mangoes hanging out unEgyptianly in the fruit aisle? Dear reader, I don't know...

Dream come true y'all, one that I held since high-school when I decided to pursue writing. Found the ahwa that Mahfouz and the Harafish would sit and write and talk and smoke and drink in, and I was able to write a bit of the novel in it! But damn did it take me a moment to find!

"Why is forgetfulness the plague of our alley?" --Naguib Mahfouz, Children of the Alley

10 days left. And you know who I'm going to miss a lot, the cook at my regular shawarma joint down the block, like he took the effort to memorize my order during the time I spent here and we brewed up so many dialogues, legendary with his food chops and such an amazing person

The Arabic language went off with نور الحياة and يا روحي

Don't know if y'all think this too, but I truly think a full stomach hurts the productivity of a good writing sesh. Like I need to be hungry to semi hungry to retain and assure a strong pen game, while distancing myself from the lethargy a good meal can quickly induce

Genuinely, the novel has been getting stronger and stronger: the characters, the 3 narratives, the setting, the fantastical, the familiar, the unfamiliar, the tones, the sounds, the structure, the voices, the (un)linearity, the past, the present, Brooklyn, Cairo, and everything in between...

Only in Cairo will you find a store called Mickey Mouse but find nothing Disney inside

Y'all see yb sitting on the carpeted floor here, well decades ago, my folks wedding ceremony was in this very spot, in this very masjid, 24 yrs later, I finally got to visit for the first time. Just bearing witness to the personal and historical in this one space has been so surreal.

THREAD of my favorite fiction openers (all amazing recs!): "His story, as the story of every one of us, started long before we were born." Yiyun Li, Immortality "Even in death the boys were trouble." Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys "124 was spiteful." Toni Morrison, Beloved

One great piece of writing advice I've received in Cairo: "You're role is that of an observer, so travel silently to the alleys & souqs & ahwas, & pay attention to the voices of the people. Listen to how we joke, grieve, curse, laugh, cry, & brood. If you wish to write about us, hear us close."

Well since double features are the new trendy wave, whose trying to drop a book at the same time with me?! Come on let's do it down the road when we're ready, readers won't know what hit them! An authorial double whammy from the dynamic debut duo! 😝

DEBUT NOVEL LFGGGGG!!? ☄️🏐 I wrote a satire called HOT GIRLS WITH BALLS because SPORTS and w/ my agent Cody Caetano we made a deal w/ editor Alicia Kroell @Catapult.co ☄️🏐  more balls soon!

The road taken for my night run, primordial sky blues✌🏽

Does a ghost of internet past ever visit you monthly in the brutal depths of night and whisper in your ear... "How's it been?"

Ayyyyy we got the Fulbright affiliation before going to Egypt babyyyyyyyy!!!!!

too hot to do shit in nyc i went to the dentist hungover and made it back wet but alive i touched concrete please clap

Just did the (I believe!) first in person Periplus Collect reading, and it was so fun seeing folks join for this dope lineup of readers! And y'all, full house! Packed to the brim! For folks who I wasn't able to chat or that I missed afterwards, my bad! But feel free to hit me up!

Okay y'all, last go around promoting this, but if you happen to be in the NY/Brooklyn area tomorrow, I'll be reading with some of the dopest writers around (game changers in the making!) at Unnameable books at 7pm! Hope to see y'all there for a night of mingling and verse! #author #authors

For those curious, these are the books I'll be reading as I head to Egypt to work on the novel: White Teeth The Ministry of Utmost Happiness The Fortune Men The Great Believers In Other Rooms, Other Wonders I Am My Country Fasting, Feasting Open to picking up any other recs on these last few days!

Come on, I know Blue Sky also reminds you of that one teacher who passive aggressively encourages you to socialize with the other new kids on the first day of middle school

looking for friends! rising fictionist whose writing’s appeared in various mags, outlets, most notably the Best American Short Stories 2021. peep “Cartagena, 2002” in VQR; got new flash coming this summer! #authors & readers come hang with yb? https://www.vqronline.org/fiction/2023/01/cartagena-2002

Hello... is this thing on???