An Accidental Jihad

Writer Krista Bremer met Ismail fifteen years ago on a North Carolina running trail. A romantic relationship developed through an unexpected pregnancy, eventual marriage, and subsequent spiritual growth. Krista’s recent memoir, My Accidental Jihad, details her jump into the deep space of marriage and an unexpected faith journey.

Deonna Kelli Sayed speaks with Krista and Ismail  — “Ish” for short — about the bicultural nature of all marriages, Krista’s writing process, and her evolving spiritual journey.

Click here to visit Krista’s website.

—-Krista Bremer is an American author whose award-winning essays have appeared in national and international magazines and news outlets including The New York Times Magazine,  O: The Oprah Magazine, CNN, MSN, MORE, The Sun, and The Sunday Times (London).

Her work has been featured on National Public Radio, and she has appeared in the PBS series Arab American Stories.  She has also participated in a debate at the Cambridge Union, and her work has been translated and reprinted all over the world.

In 2009 she was one of six American writers to receive a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, a $25,000 prize to support emerging women writers in the United States. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, a North Carolina Arts Fellowship, and a scholarship to the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference.   She lives in North Carolina with her husband Ismail and their two children and works as associate publisher of The Sun.