A prominent practitioner of the Arabic "very short story" form, Osama Alomar published three collections of stories and a volume of poetry in his native Syria before events pushed him into exile. Now living in Chicago, Alomar's work has appeared in English translation in a variety of literary reviews and journals, including Ploughshares, The New Yorker Online, and The Southern Review. Fullblood Arabian, a collection of his stories in translation was published in 2013 by New Directions. Another collection, The Teeth of the Comb, is forthcoming in early 2017. Alomar will appear with his translator, Athenaeum Librarian Christian Collins.