Me Write Good
When Omar Mouallem's fifth-grade teacher recruited five students to write the Volume one of a one-volume school newspaper, and rejected the keen ten-year-old's pleas to participate, Omar went home and cried. His parent's had no sympathy for his tears, but they did have a Commodore 64, one of the first ever personal computers.
Omar started writing his first short stories on that computer, satirizing not-so-thinly veiled authority figures. His plan was to make his own paper and shove it in those jerk-faced adult's jerk-faces. Problem was, he didn't have a printer. The raging prose that could vindicate him remained stuck in the bulky machine, since it was unmovable and the alternative (bringing the teacher home to read his material) would probably result in his teacher losing her career.
The Small Town, Alberta-native pursued his passion for words. Before attending Vancouver Film School's Writing for TV & Film stream, he had already penned four feature-length screenplays.
After college, he dipped his feet into two new avenues at once: directing and editing educational films and writing music reviews for zines. Neither job paid, but both would determine his career. Naturally, the direction that involved the most keyboard-related time prevailed.
Since 2006 Omar Mouallem has contributed to ten widely-circulated publications, and his work has been read across the globe, from New York to England. (Not to mention his brief video rants on Al-Jazeera English's The Listening Post, which has a viewer ship in the who-knows-what.) Whether through his cheeky music reviews, nerdy movie critiques or riveting features, Omar loves to mold words on any topic — including cats, as evidenced in his book, Amazing Cats. In 2008, he won second-prize in the features category at the Sex-Positive Journalism Awards in New York City for an article about temporary marriages in Shia Islam. He's currently the associate editor of Avenue magazine in Edmonton, Alta. View his writing portfolio at Issuu.com.
Writing resume:
Associate Editor
Avenue magazine (Edmonton)
2008 to Present
Editor: Colin McGarrigle
www.AvenueEdmonton.com
Other Contributions
Vue Weekly (Edmonton)
Film critic / 2006 to 2009
Editor: Ron Garth
www.VueWeekly.com
Exclaim! (Toronto)
Music critic / 2007
Hip-hop Editor: Del Cowie
www.Exclaim.ca
Canadian Arab News (Edmonton)
Arts columnist / 2006
Editor: Faisal Asaf
24 Hours (Edmonton)
Freelance reporter / 2008 and 2009
Editor: Eliza Barlow
www.EdmontonSun.com
Edmonton Community Foundation
Contract Writer (as Theodore White) / 2010
Editor: Susan Pederson
The Nerve Magazine (Vancouver)
Music Writer / 2006
Editor: Adrian Mack
www.TheNerveMagazine.com
Q-News (London)
Rhyme with Reason / 2006
Editor: Fareena Allam
The Listening Post
Video Blogger / 2007
Network: Al Jazeera English
Chief Mag (New York)
Article: An Evening at the Sexies / 2008
Contributing Writer
Editor: Andrew Smith
Amazing Cats: Stories of Intuition, Compassion, Mystery & Extraordinary Feats
Author
Publisher: Faye Boer
Folklore Publishing / 2008
Paper / Cuts
Short story: Dr. Bus Love / 2007
Editor: Mark Nixon
Confluence '07/'08
Essay: Still Shooting Elephants
Editor:Dr. Paul Lumsden
Zines & Web Contributions: HipHopDx.com, Splurge, TheDailyRedundancy.com, 30Music.com, International Beauty Salon
