About the Author
Omar Mouallem is an award-winning writer and filmmaker. He’s reported on Muslim and Middle Eastern issues for The Guardian, The Ringer, and WIRED, coauthored the national bestseller Inside the Inferno: A Firefighter’s Story of the Brotherhood that Saved Fort McMurray, and dIrected two documentaries. His forthcoming film, The Last Baron, exposes the the unlikely connection between the Lebanese civil war and a rogue burger chain.
In 2013, he was honoured with the city’s Northlands Emerging Artist of the Year award and served as the Edmonton Public Library’s Writer in Residence. Avenue put him on its annual Top 40 Under 40 list in 2014. Other awards include the Mindset Award for Workplace Mental Health Reporting for “Oil, Heartbreak, and Manhood,” his BuzzFeed News story, which he later adapted into a documentary with Dylan Rhys Howard. The film, Digging in the Dirt, was a HotDocs selection and finalist for three Rosie Awards, including best long-form documentary.
As an educator, Omar mentors graduate students of King’s University creative nonfiction program. He also teaches the business of freelance journalism at the University of Alberta and founded Pandemic University, a pop-up writing school in support of writers affected by the COVID-19 fallout. Its courses and webinars have been attended by more than 2,500 people from 40 countries. The “PanU” community has collectively raised over $10,000 for literary causes and facilitated $2,000 in scholarships on behalf of Good Samaritan writers.
Omar sits on the boards of Canada’s only nonfiction festival, LitFest, and the writers for free expression group PEN Canada. He presented the 2018 Peter Lougheed Leadership College Communications Lecture on the far-right’s weaponization of free speech law. Omar is also a frequent TV and radio guest, having appeared on Al Jazeera, WNYC, and CBC, and he has hosted several podcasts, including six episodes of CANADALAND’s flagship show.
