About
Marcelle Shehwaro is a Syrian feminist writer from Aleppo. In 2015, her online series Dispatches from Syria, which documented daily life and activism in Aleppo, received an Online Journalism Award for Online Commentary. Her nonfiction work explores women’s lives, political struggle, and the daily details of life in Syria. Her writing has appeared in international publications and anthologies, and she has spoken and taught in academic, cultural, and civic spaces.
Author – Obvious as the Sun: A Memoir of Aleppo, the Revolution, and My Mother (in progress)
Creative-nonfiction work chronicling life in wartime Aleppo and the moral complexities of survival and resistance during the Syrian revolution.
Education
- MFA in Nonfiction Creative Writing – Columbia University, USA (2018 – 2022)
- MA in Human Rights and Cultural Diversity – University of Essex, UK (2012 – 2013)
Thesis: Truth in the Transitional Justice Process in Syria - B.A. in International and Diplomatic Relations (incomplete) – Damascus University, Syria (2010 – 2012)
Completed three years of study before interruption due to security persecution by the Syrian regime. - DDS in Dentistry – University of Aleppo, Syria (2002 – 2010)
Awards & Fellowships
- How to Smuggle a Christmas Tree When You Are on Daesh’s Hit List? – Shortlist, Best Emerging Writers, The Masters Review (2026); Longlist, Memoir Excerpt & Essay Contest, CRAFT (2025)
- Honorary Doctorate in Human Rights – University of Essex, UK (2025)
Awarded for contributions to human-rights advocacy and accountability work in Syria. - Graduate Teaching & Fellowship Award – Columbia University (2021 – 2022)
- Full Scholarship – Columbia University (2018 – 2020)
- Chevening Scholar – UK FCO (2012 – 2013)
- Online Journalism Award – Online Commentary, for Dispatches from Syria, Global Voices (2015)
Featured in Books
- Radicalizing Her: Why Women Choose Violence – Nimmi Gowrinathan (Beacon Press, 2021)
- Syria: Den tapte revolusjonen – Bendik Sørvig (Forlaget Manifest, 2017)
- We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria – Wendy Pearlman (HarperCollins, 2017)
- Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War – Robin Yassin-Kassab & Leila Al-Shami (Pluto Press, 2016)