Edward Salem

Nov 7, 2024 | therumpus.net | Edward Salem

When my IUD’s seven-year lifespan was up,I felt better after the foreign object was out. The hijabi receptionist at Planned Parenthoodcornered me to ask how I care for my curly hair,volunteering that her second child would be her lastbecause her five-day-long labor had culminated ina heart attack. It’s not like I wanted to get pregnant,I just wanted to be unencumbered by precautions. It was like my deviated septum, there was no reasonnot to get the surgery, I just didn’t want to.

Jul 15, 2024 | transcend.org | Edward Salem

Edward Salem | The New York Review of Books - TRANSCEND Media Service I feel an obligation not to cryaround my dogelse she gets frightenedand shakes. I’m not comparingchildren to dogs like Israel does,but they share emotionalityand deep sensitivity and her shakingreminds me of the videos I downloadedonto my phone of Gazan childrenshaking in fear in hospitalsthat had only weeks left untilUS-made bombs destroyed them.

Jun 27, 2024 | nybooks.com | Edward Salem

I feel an obligation not to cryaround my dogelse she gets frightenedand shakes. I’m not comparingchildren to dogs like Israel does,but they share emotionalityand deep sensitivity and her shakingreminds me of the videos I downloadedonto my phone of Gazan childrenshaking in fear in hospitalsthat had only weeks left untilUS-made bombs destroyed them. I dreamt someone waswriting on my eye,the tip of the ballpoint pensilently scribbling what I knewbut couldn’t seeto be Arabic calligraphy.

May 15, 2024 | metrotimes.com | Edward Salem |Ghassan Zeineddine

West Bank, 2002Military jeep lights whirl orange in the night. Neon buzzes over an empty arcade. Stray dogs scatter. I stretch out at my family’s farthest olive grove, the ground cool on my back. I turn my face into crumbs of dirt. I smell the earth, and make myself smell of it. In the night-black hills, I take off all of my clothes and let the air stroke my ass, pressing my body against bark until my skin begins to itch.

Nov 14, 2023 | adimagazine.com | Edward Salem

Edward Salem is a 2023 Kresge Artist Fellow in Literary Arts and the recipient of the 2022 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize. He was chosen by Ottessa Moshfegh as the winner of BOMB magazine’s 2021 Fiction Contest and was selected by Louise Glück as a finalist for the 2021 Changes Book Prize. His writing has been published in Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, The Columbia Review, Best Debut Short Stories (Catapult), and elsewhere.