Fajer Alexander Khansa was raised in Lattakia, Syria, and Tokyo, Japan. He moved to the US in 2005, where he completed his studies at the University of Southern California. His writing has appeared in publications such as Tin House and TriQuarterly and he is a 2019 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow. Khansa’s short-story collection in progress, Counting Lights, goes beyond the media coverage on Syria and highlights the human side of the crisis.