Sara Abou Rashed
Sara Abou Rashed is an Arab American poet, storyteller, and public speaker whose work explores displacement, identity, and belonging. Born in Syria to a Palestinian family, she moved to Ohio in 2013 and quickly found her voice through poetry. Her writing has been featured in Poetry Magazine, Poetry Wales, The Kenyon Review, The LA Review of Books as well as in the anthologies A Land With a People, Ask the Night for a Dream: Palestinian Writing from the Diaspora and in the latest 9-12 McGraw Hill English curriculum, among others.
At just 17, Sara delivered a TEDx Talk and has since keynoted multiple national conferences, including NCTE, AFS Cultural Exchange Training, and Senator Sherrod Brown’s Women’s Leadership Summit. At 19, Sara created the autobiographical one-woman show, A Map of Myself, which narrates her family’s story and blending storytelling, acting, and spoken-word poetry. She has performed her show over 17 times across the country and has been named a poetry fellow at the Vermont Studio Center.
Sara holds a BA from Denison University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan, where her manuscript won the prestigious 2023 Hopwood Graduate Poetry Award. Recently, her work was also highly commended by the 2024 UK Forward Prize.Based in Columbus, Ohio, Sara is working on publishing her first book while continuing to inspire audiences nationwide.
She’s a connector and trailblazer, changing the world one poem at a time.
Fun fact: she’s a two-time commencement speaker!
Speaker Topics
Sara is passionate about creativity, youth mentorship, minority and women's empowerment, immigration, and intercultural communication and belonging. Her speaking blends personal experience, storytelling, spoken word and practices for a kinder, well-connected world.
Why did you join UPROAR?
I wanted to be supported by and in community with fellow Muslim women who are also using their voices for good and becoming role models for young muslims everywhere. It’s very important for me as a speaker not only to be appreciated but to be understood and have my background recognized and well-considered. UPROAR is unique in providing exactly that.
How do you define the word UPROAR?
Being empowered to speak up, to speak loud, proud, being unafraid to make noise and using my voice so it may echo for good causes in the world.
