Mona Kareem

Mona Kareem (; born 1987) is an Arab-American writer, translator, and literary scholar, as well as an advocate for migrant rights. Born in Kuwait to a stateless, or Bedoon, family, the theme of statelessness is prevalent in her literary work.

Kareem worked as a visiting scholar at Tufts University and the University of Maryland, College Park. She has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Zora Neale Hurston Fellowship at Bard College, Poetry International Web, Arab American National Museum, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and National Centre for Writing. She served as translator-in-residence at Princeton University, and currently serves as assistant professor in the Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

As a literary scholar, Kareem's research interests range from Arabic poetry and prose, contemporary feminist fiction, and literary translation strategies to subaltern subjectivities.

Kareem was denied entry to Kuwait at Kuwait International Airport when she flew there to see her family in 2023. Kareem told the Associated Press that Kuwaiti authorities informed her that she risked imprisonment if she remained in the country. She had previously been questioned about Bedoon-related activism and pledged not to have political discussions.

Works

Poetry Kareem's poetry is characterized by the use of simple language and vivid imagery. It is frequently arranged in short lines. Themes often deal with feminism and identity, especially as a migrant, and push beyond liberal feminist and colonial frameworks to examine structural violence of the nation-state.

At 14 years old, Kareem published her first poetry collection. Two years later, she released her second anthology . Kareem published Ma anamū min adjlihi el yaum in 2016. In 2019, she released trilingual poetry collection Femme Ghosts. Her books have been translated to nine languages.

Translation Kareem translated the novel Kindred by Octavia Butler and some poems of Alejandra Pizarnik into Arabic. She translated Instructions Within by Ashraf Fayadh (2017) into English; it was nominated for Best Translated Book Award.