Omar Mouallem

{{short description|Canadian writer}}

{{Infobox writer

|name = Omar Mouallem

|image = Omar Mouallem headshot.jpg

|caption =

|birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1985|9|13}}

| birth_place = Slave Lake, Alberta, Canada

|death_date =

|occupation = Writer, Filmmaker

}}

Omar Mouallem is a Canadian writer{{cite web|url=https://blog.magazine-awards.com/2014/06/06/announcing-the-winners-of-the-37th-annual-national-magazine-awards/|title=Announcing the Winners of the 37th annual National Magazine Awards!|first=National Magazine|last=Awards|date=7 June 2014|publisher=}} and filmmaker. He has contributed to Wired, The Guardian, The New Yorker, and Rolling Stone. His essays and features have garnered him recognition from the Canadian National Magazine Awards and Alberta Literary Awards.{{cite web|url=https://writersguild.ca/2017-alberta-literary-awards-shortlist/|title=2017 Alberta Literary Awards Shortlist}} He co-authored a book about the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire titled Inside the Inferno: A Firefighter's Story of the Brotherhood that Saved Fort McMurray (published by Simon & Schuster Canada).{{cite web|url=http://www.insidetheinferno.ca | title=Official Page – Inside the Inferno}} His book Praying to the West: How Muslims Shaped the Americas, a travelogue centred around 13 mosques, was named one of the best books of 2021 by The Globe and Mail.{{cite news|url= https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/article-the-globe-100-the-books-we-loved-in-2021 | title= The Globe 100: The books we loved in 2021| newspaper= The Globe and Mail| date= 29 November 2021}} It was awarded the 2022 Wilfred Eggleston Nonfiction Award by the Alberta Literary Awards.{{Cite web |title=Edmonton dominates Alberta Literary Awards, Glen Huser takes Edmonton book prize |url=https://edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/local-arts/edmonton-dominates-alberta-literary-awards-glen-huser-takes-edmonton-book-prize |access-date=2022-06-17 |website=edmontonjournal |language=en-CA}}

He has won three Canadian National Magazine Awards,{{Cite web |title=A Man of Many Gifts: Omar Mouallem – Creative Nonfiction Collective |url=https://creativenonfictioncollective.ca/a-man-of-many-gifts-omar-mouallem/ |access-date=2022-06-17 |website=creativenonfictioncollective.ca}} including best profile in 2014 for the Eighteen Bridges story, "The Kingdom of Haymour", which profiled a man who took the Canadian Embassy in Beirut hostage in the 1970s over a British Columbia land dispute. The article partially inspired the 2020 documentary film Eddy’s Kingdom, for which Mouallem was a key interviewee. {{cite web|url= https://m.imdb.com/title/tt9723386/ | title=Eddy's Kingdom (2020)| website=IMDb}}

Mouallem directed and produced two documentaries, 2019’s Digging in the Dirt, a CBC coproduction about a mental health crises in the Alberta oil sands workforce, and 2021’s The Last Baron, a first-person film about the unlikely connection between Lebanon’s civil war and the Canadian fast-food chain Burger Baron.{{cite web|url= https://edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/movies/the-last-baron-documentary-looks-at-edmonton-fast-food-royaltys-legacy/wcm/d7071045-328d-465a-82c7-077419d93701/amp/ | title= The Last Baron documentary looks at Edmonton fast food royalty's legacy}} After premiering on CBC Gem, it gained notable popularity and it was heralded as one of the “best Canadian food documentaries” by enRoute magazine.{{Cite web |title=Best Canadian Food Documentaries – Air Canada enRoute |url=https://enroute.aircanada.com/en/food-and-drink/canadian-food-documentaries/ |access-date=2022-06-17 |website=enroute.aircanada.com |language=en}} Mouallem announced that the short film would be expanded into a feature documentary retitled The Lebanese Burger Mafia and released in 2023.{{Cite web |last=Mckenzie |first=Kevin Hinton & Ryan |title=Western Living Magazine |url=https://www.westernliving.ca/2022-Foodies-of-the-Year-Omar-Mouallem-The-Last-Baron |access-date=2022-06-17 |website=Western Living Magazine |date=9 May 2022 |language=en}} Mouallem has contributed to YouthWrite, hosting a workshop during JustWrite in 2017 called Profiling Without Fear, covering how to capture the essence of a subject.{{Cite web |title=JustWrite 2017 |url=https://www.youthwrite.com/justwrite-2017 |access-date=2024-12-01 |website=www.youthwrite.com}}

In 2013, he won Edmonton's Emerging Artist Award and served as the Edmonton Public Library's writer in residence.{{Cite web |url=http://www2.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=1b09b876-167a-4720-bcb2-5abf8afe98ee |title=Lund wins Ambassador for the Arts Award |access-date=2013-12-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212214005/http://www2.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=1b09b876-167a-4720-bcb2-5abf8afe98ee |archive-date=2013-12-12 |url-status=dead }} In 2022, he was awarded an Emerging Artists Award from the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta.{{Cite web |title=Edmonton Journal |url=https://edmontonjournal.com/ |access-date=2022-06-17 |website=edmontonjournal |language=en-CA}}