Familiar Strangers

An Egyptian engineer who loves technology and holds a coveted position in Silicon Valley faces a moral choice when his infant daughter is diagnosed with a serious birth defect at Stanford Hospital.

A University of Michigan grad student has a secret sideline of belly dancing in a Middle Eastern night club in Detroit when her professor suddenly shows up with his Arabic-speaking fiancee.

An Armenian academic who has chosen to study Turkic cultures grapples with her relationship with her mother, a survivor of the Armenian genocide

These stories and eight others illuminate the lives of Americans, Kurds, Iranians, Turks, and Armenians at personal and cross-cultural flashpoints. They reflect decades of American involvement in the Middle East.. Most of the stories have been previously published in a variety of literary and popular magazines including CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW, ARARAT, PANGYRUS, KALLIOPE, IOWA WOMAN, and WEST MAGAZINE, the former Sunday magazine section of THE SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS. In addition, one of the stories was the basis for a full length play produced and staged in a Silicon Valley theater where it played to sold out shows.

For more information about the author check out www.pearlnotepress.com