Samar Al Summary is a writer and visual artist born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She is an alumna of Tin House as well as the Ashkal Alwan Educational Residency in Beirut, Lebanon. Her work has been exhibited and screened internationally. Her writing has been published by Well Gedacht. Her photography has been published in Aperture. She is currently an artist-in-residence at Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, NE.
Project Description: She is working on an autofictive bildungsroman about a Saudi-American that has a psychotic break as she tries and fails to find work in the post-recession U.S. as a shy Saudi girl who was raised to not look men in the eye or laugh in public. It takes years to understand that what allowed her to survive in Saudi will kill her in America.
Residency: 2022 General