Al-RAWI was founded to bring our writers together into a professional circle. We include eminent poets like Etel Adnan, Naomi Shihab Nye and Larry E. Joseph, also writers and anthologists such as Salma Khadra Jayyusi, and translator Mansour Ajami, novelist and sociologist Halim Barakat, science writer Gary Paul Nabhan, film-makers Jocelyn Ajami, Anna Bazzi and Anissa Bouziane. To date we number 75 writers, from highly published to the aspiring.
Many members are students.
In 1992, it was evident to anyone watching the literary scene that Arab-Americans were making a real drive to tell good stories, to become a bridge for the generations, to educate, and to speak the soul of our people. Like many artists, we writers work independently, often along with another job. Poets and novelists hardly need an organization to help us write well. So al-RAWI was not founded as a publishing outlet or service. It's a support organization, with ideals too.