Riverbend 1979(?)-

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Riverbend 1979(?)-

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1979. Education: Attended college.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—c/o Author Mail, The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, The Graduate Center, 365 5th Ave., Ste. 5406, New York, NY 10016. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer. Former computer programmer.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Bloggie award for Best Middle East and Africa blog.

WRITINGS:

Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq, Feminist Press at the City University of New York (New York, NY), 2006.

Author of the blog Riverbend.

ADAPTATIONS:

Baghdad Burning was adapted in 2005 as a dramatic production produced at the West End Theatre, New York, NY.

SIDELIGHTS:

Riverbend is the pseudonym of a young, college-educated Iraqi woman who started a Web blog that focuses on how the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States and the ensuing occupation has affected the Iraqi people. In an interview with Lakshmi Chaudhry for the AlterNet Web site, the author noted that she was attracted to blogging "because I was very frustrated with the Western media for telling only half the story in Iraq." She added: "No one seemed to know what was going on inside of the country—all the damage and horror Iraqis were facing on a daily basis." A collection of Riverbend's first year of blog writings has been published as Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq. Sara Powell, writing in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, noted that the book "pulls aside the blackout curtains of embedded, scared, or otherwise hampered traditional reporters." A Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote: "Feisty and learned: first-rate reading for any American who suspects that Fox News may not be telling the whole story." Keir Graff commented inBooklist that the author's "take on politics is so perceptive that readers may wonder if she is actually a Beltway antiwar activist." World Literature Todaycontributor Susan Smith Nash wrote: "All is shrouded in the fog of war, and Riverbend's need to make sense of the unrelenting savagery of life in harm's way is poignant, touching, and universally compelling."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 1, 2005, Keir Graff, review of Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq, p. 1339; January 1, 2006, review of Baghdad Burning, p. 11.

Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2005, review of Baghdad Burning, p. 341.

Library Journal, April 1, 2005, Marcia L. Sprules, review of Baghdad Burning, p. 112.

Times (London, England), March 27, 2006, Jack Malvern, "Literary Honour for Baghdad Blogger."

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May-June, 2006, Sara Powell, review of Baghdad Burning,p. 72.

World Literature Today, March-April 2006, Susan Smith Nash, review of Baghdad Burning, p. 63.