As a young person in the American South, Dina Abdulhadi wrote a lot — poetry, songs, stories, papers based on research. She loved to write, dedicated herself to writing, and worked to become a better writer.
But when it came time to decide what to study in college, pursuing a career in the arts was “not really in the cards,” she said. So she got a science degree and became a lab scientist.
“I’ve always been a writer. I stuffed it away for a while so I could focus on college, but I think I’ve always been coming back to it,” Abdulhadi said. “Even as my career has drifted from lab science research to science writing to broader environmental work, I’ve been kind of creeping toward it all along.”
In recent years, Abdulhadi has been focused mostly on advocacy writing and poetry, and her work has been published by Room, Reckoning, Breakwater Review, The Worcester Review, Brooklyn Poets, Mizna and Haymarket Books. She was an Emerge-Surface-Be Fellow at The Poetry Project and a nominee for the Pushcart Prize, one of the country’s most prestigious annual literary awards.
These days, she calls herself an ex-scientist, though related subjects continue to course through her work.
“I still really love science and nature. I love the technical aspects of that kind of work, and learning constantly about the world,” Abdulhadi said. “I write mostly about the climate crisis and environmental issues, as well as my experience being a queer person of color — particularly a Palestinian — in the U.S.”
After participating in a couple of residencies in urban environments, Abdulhadi is looking forward to spending time in the wide open spaces that surround The Ranch, where she intends to work on both existing projects and a new one that explores how ecological terms and concepts can lead to broader social understanding.
“It’ll be really nice to just spend time in nature,” she said. “Being able to actually touch grass and trees in a place touched by wildfire in a different season, I think all of that will be really helpful for my writing.”
Dina Abdulhadi will conduct a workshop, “Writing About Climate and Grief,” on Tuesday, April 28 from 3-5 p.m. at The Ranch. Participants will be guided through several writing exercises of their own stories that braid personal experience with grief with the private and collective losses of climate change.
You can also hear from Dina at the Studio Tour alongside writer Jana Richman and textile artist Jingyi Yang on Thursday, May 7 from 5-6:30 p.m.
