Haneen Oriqat is a Muslim Palestinian-American writer, editor, photographer, and activist. As a child of diaspora, her love for travel, the moon, and the ocean are infused into her stories in search of home for teens and adults. Along with her writing aspirations, she is dedicated to fostering a career in the publishing industry with the commitment of supporting diverse voices by increasing the visibility of writers of color who have been marginalized. Haneen is currently the Operations Coordinator for Electric Postcard Entertainment and Cake Creative Kitchen, an IP story development entertainment company dedicated to bold and diverse storytelling across publishing, books, audio, podcasts, and film/TV for all ages. She has worked at the agency level and held various positions in education and the arts, including being hired as a consultant to write and edit a comic book project for The AjA Project.
Haneen received her MFA in Creative Writing with an emphasis in Fiction and Writing for Young People from Antioch University, Los Angeles. She is an alumna of the University of California, San Diego, where she received a BA in Political Science with an emphasis in International Relations and a minor in Literature/Writing while taking extensive courses in Photography. She authored the graphic novel How Did We Get Here? City Heights and her work has been featured in a variety of publications. Her work has been featured in The Manifest-Station, Everyday Feminism, Angels Flight ∙ literary west, This is Worldtown, and BuzzFeed Books. She was also selected as a finalist for Voyage YA Journal’s First Chapters Contest for Women Writers. Haneen is a fellow of Highlights Foundation’s first Muslim Storytellers Fellowship and VONA/Voices for writers of color.
Haneen was born and raised on Kumeyaay land now known as San Diego, California and currently resides in NYC. Despite her sarcasm and unhealthy amount of coffee often getting her in trouble, she is always working on a few manuscripts. You can find her at haneenoriqat.com or on social media @haneenoriqat.
I was born with an intense love for the written word and literature. While I had always dreamed of completing novels, short stories, and writing material for the world that was both entertaining and educational, little did I know that my love for words would lead me to gaining a love for editing. There’s a sweet satisfaction to having the opportunity to read the work of others – regardless of what type of material and subject – and being able to work alongside others to better their writing while also gaining knowledge of subjects I never thought would interest me. I enjoy my work and look forward to every material of writing I receive.
Photography is much more than a hobby to me. It’s another form of breathing. After experimenting for years with several cameras, I now own a beautiful Canon DSLR that has traveled with me all over California, the United States, and overseas. Having been born and raised in San Diego, my favorite type of photography is natural light photography, capturing beautiful moments all over America’s Finest City and the world.
I remember being that kid who was always concerned about capturing moments – all sorts of experiences – to feel like I had more control than just creating a snapshot of a moment in my head. My love for photography started around the same time I was able to understand the concept of a camera. My parents couldn’t afford to get me anything fancy, but they still managed to get me simple cameras, disposable and film, back in elementary school. Both of my mom’s uncles also loved photography and whenever I would visit them, I would sit there watching them work their fancy cameras. By the time that high school came around, my parents were able to buy me one of the first digital cameras.
A small, silver Olympus followed by a nicer pink Sony camera. I finally made the leap to take photography more seriously after my first quarter at the University of California, San Diego. I took on a photography minor and bought my first professional film camera. I learned to love playing with colors and spending hours in the darkroom. When UCSD lost funding for their arts, the department was forced to remove all film equipment and I bought my first DSLR, taking my skills further and self-teaching myself Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. It’s always my pleasure to be invited to capture the journeys of others through photography.