Annia Ciezadlo was a special correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor in Baghdad and The New Republic in Beirut. She has written about culture, politics, and the Middle East for The Nation, Saveur, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The New York Observer, and Lebanon’s Daily Star. Her article about cooking with Iraqi refugees in Beirut was included in Best Food Writing 2009.

 

Until 2003, Ciezadlo was a senior editor at the award-winning New York City newsmagazine City Limits. Her December 2002 cover story, “Coney Island High,” used the story of a recovered drug dealer to show how urban renewal devastated one of New York’s coolest neighborhoods—and an entire generation of people who lived there. In 2003, it was a finalist for the Freedom Forum’s Excellence in Urban Journalism Award and the Harry Chapin Media Awards.

In late 2003, Ciezadlo left Brooklyn for Baghdad. Living there and in Beirut, she covered war in Iraq, uprisings in Lebanon, crackdowns in Syria, and the 2006 summer war between Israel and Hezbollah. She specializes in stories about culture and civil society, in exploring the intersections between larger political realities and everyday activities like driving, cooking, and going to school. This collection includes stories about Hezbollah perfume, Iraqi war poetry, Lebanon’s slow food movement, Baghdad’s political graffiti, and many more.

Ciezadlo lives with her husband in New York. Her memoir Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love, and War, was published by Free Press on February 1, 2011.