Rima Rantisi, Lecturer
MFA in Creative Nonfiction (Vermont College of Fine Arts)
MA (DePaul University); BA (DePaul University)
Email: rr28@aub.edu.lb
www.rustedradishes.com
Rima Rantisi teaches creative writing in the Department of English at the American University of Beirut and is the founding editor of Rusted Radishes: Beirut Literary and Art Journal (since 2012). Her essays can be found in the New England Review, Literary Hub, Rusted Radishes, Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, Sweet: A Literary Confection, Past Ten, and Slag Glass City. She was on the editorial board of the English Department’s custom reader for Academic Writing from 2011 through 2018. Her teaching has included several international course collaborations with students from AUB and the US, Ireland, and Slovakia.
Her book-in-progress is titled You Were There, Before. It is a collection of interconnected essays on motherhood including sub-themes of home, health, and revolution. These themes are rooted in a nearly six-year context of world and local Lebanese politics, her experience of suffering a life-changing obstetric injury, and how motherhood inevitably traces back to notions of home.
She has organized and co-organized programs and series include the
Youthful Cities Programme for the Coventry City of Culture, the Tarjamat Series, and various workshops and readings for
Rusted Radishes.
Selected Publications (Essays):
“Shitbag," Rusted Radishes: Beirut Literary and Art Journal & Megaphone co-publication (2023)
“Leave From or Arrive There": A Conversation with Rima Rantisi," Asymptote (2022)
“Waiting," New England Review (2022)
“Inside the (Seismic) Shift," Slag Glass City (2021) [Nominated for a 2021Pushcart Prize]
“Losing Beirut: On Life in a Shattered City," Literary Hub (2020)
“November 20, 2009," Past Ten (2019)
“Days of Pearls," Slag Glass City (2019) [Nominated for a 2019 Pushcart Prize]
“There's a Man Dying Next Door," Sweet: A Literary Confection (2018)
“Circling to Shape Your Ideas: An Interview with Michele Morano," Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies (2018)
“Here and There in a Time of Terror," Arab Women Voice New Realities: Anthology of Arab Women Writers (2017)
Selected Publications (Journal and Anthology):
2012 - Present Rusted Radishes: Beirut Literary and Arts Journal (Print)
Founding Editor-in-Chief
2022 Issue Ten: Money
2020 Issue Nine: Health and Illness
2019 Issue Eight: Sea Change
2018 Issue Seven: Crossing Borders
2017 Issue Six: Underground
2016 Issue Five: The Political City
2015 Issue Four: Trans-
2014 Issue Three: Nostalgia/Progress
2013 Issue Two: Memory and Magic
2012 Issue One
2017-Present Rusted Radishes Webzine
www.rustedradishes.com
2020-2023 Rusted Radishes Webzine Special Issues
2023 Shame (in collaboration with Megaphone News)
2022 Mudun Short Story Prize (in collaboration with Barjeel Art Foundation)
2022 Letters & Liminality
2021 Ethnographic Diaries: Capturing the Everyday in Crisis (in collaboration with ACSS)
2020 Barjeel Poetry Prize (in collaboration with Barjeel Art Foundation)
2020 Writers in Response
2010-2018 Reader for Academic Writing for Department of English
Editor, American University of Beirut
2018 Pages Apart: A Reader for Academic Writing
2014 Shifting Narratives: A Reader for Academic Writing
2012 After Words: A Reader for Academic Writing (Editor-in-Chief)
2010 Shades of Gray: A Reader for Academic Writing
Courses :
ENGL 254 Narratives of the (Extra)Ordinary (Literary Journalism)
ENGL 254 City As Character (Creative Nonfiction)
ENGL 254 The Personal Essay
ENGL 252 Creative Nonfiction
ENGL 250 Poetry
ENGL 244 Narratives of Peace and Conflict (Literature)
ENGL 236 Creative Writing
ENGL 204 Advanced Academic Writing
ENGL 203 Academic Writing
ENGL 102 Enrichment Course in English