Belal Mobarak was born in Alexandria, Egypt and raised in Queens, New York. He’s the middle child and the son of a great storyteller. Writing is how he learned to finish his stories, and poetry is how he learned to tell them with the least amount of words possible. He was recently selected as a finalist in Brutal Nation’s Competition for Writers of Color. You can find his poetry published in Columbia Poetry Review, Newtown Literary, and Blueshift Journal.