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ABOUT THE BOOK
A Poets & Writers First Fiction 2026 Debut Selection
In the late 1970s, Ziad Idilbi a Palestinian refugee from Lebanon, marries Salma, a Lebanese refugee escaping the war in Beirut. Resolving to start over for the very last time, the couple opens a corner store in Toledo, Ohio. Over the decades, whether it’s bigotry (pre- and post-9/11), financial ruin, or terminal illness, the Idilbis find themselves on life’s outskirts, always seemingly one day away from catastrophe.
The linked stories in Carryout follow Walid Idilbi, the youngest child of Ziad and Salma, as he navigates the heartbreaks of youth, the many colorful characters from Toledo’s Arab community, and growing up into a writer. Unsure at times whether to run toward each other or away from each other, the characters in Dudar’s exquisite debut suffer the absurdities and indignities of life in America with wry obstinance and striking wisdom.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hasan Dudar is the author of Carryout, a forthcoming short story collection with the University of Iowa Press. He is originally from Toledo, Ohio, and currently lives with his wife and daughter in Washington, DC, where he works in broadcast media. His fiction has appeared in Gulf Coast and Pinch, among other places, andwas awarded the 2025 Pinch Literary Award in Fiction. A graduate of the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, Hasan's reporting has appeared in various publications including USA Today, Detroit Free Press, The Toledo Blade, Bloomberg News, TRT World, and Aljazeera America. In 2015, he co-produced the award-winning documentary The Last of Little Syria, which follows some of the last Arab American residents living in Toledo, Ohio's historic Arab enclave.
IN CONVERSATION WITH
Reena Shah is the author of the novel Every Happiness and the forthcoming story collection Bad Neighbors. Her work has appeared in swamp pink, Lit Hub, Debutiful, Electric Literature, the Masters Review, Joyland, BBC, The Guardian, and National Geographic, among others. She is the recipient of a Steinbeck Fellowship, the Keene Prize in Literature from the University of Texas in Austin, a Fulbright Scholarship, and a Sustainable Arts Foundation Fellowship. For many years she was also a kathak dancer with the Parul Shah Dance Company. She teaches at a public school in Brooklyn, and lives with her family on Roosevelt Island.
