Rhonda Roumani is a Syrian-American journalist who has written about Islam, the Arab world and Muslim-American issues for more than two decades. Her articles have appeared in the Washington Post, the Financial Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Times, Religion News Service, USA Today, and Salon, to name a few.

Rhonda is also an author of books of non-fiction and fiction for children. She started writing children’s books in 2017, when she ran a book fair at her daughter’s school and couldn’t find a single book written by an Arab author; and, found that the only book by a Muslim author was by Malala Yousafzai. Rhonda was a Pitch Wars mentee in 2019. In 2021, she was named a Highlights Muslim Storytellers Fellow for 2021-2023.

Rhonda’s first upper middle grade novel, TAGGING FREEDOM, about a Syrian graffiti artist was released in 2023 with Union Square & Co. Her first picture book INSHA’ALLAH, NO, MAYBE SO was released in May 2024, with Holiday House. Her first nonfiction picture book, UMM KULTHUM, THE STAR OF THE EAST, will be released on November 26, 2024 with Interlink Publishing. 

Rhonda graduated with a MS in Journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and received her BA in English and Political Science from UCLA. She is currently an affiliate of Yale's Macmillan Center, Council of Middle Eastern Studies. She lives in New Haven, CT with her family.

Rhonda is represented by Brent Taylor of Triada US