Unveiling the Untold Struggles Behind the Book You Thought Was Almost Done

“SO HOW’S THE BOOK COMING ALONG?”

I get this question a lot, ever since I started writing my book after getting DOGE’d this past spring. Usually I respond with something like good, great, or coming along well thank you!

That’s not totally untrue, but to be more specific, it was coming along well for several months and then recently I hit a wall and began avoiding writing at all costs.

What’s the book again??

If you’ve followed me on Medium for a little while, you know it’s been my long-time dream to write this book. Here’s the work-in-progress blurb:

A riveting exploration of identity and coming of age, AT THE EDGE OF THE KNOWN WORLD (working title) is the poignant and funny tale of a young American woman struggling to manage a youth center in the world’s largest Syrian refugee camp. In her debut memoir, Georgie Nink critically examines the humanitarian aid industrial complex and her own flawed role in it, even while detailing embarrassing Arabic mishaps and humorous stories of daily life as an expat living in Jordan.

This story explores what it means to truly witness and support people as they navigate the trauma of war and displacement. But the serious is juxtaposed with the tragicomic as she deals with celebrities who visit the camp for Instagram photo ops, leads fake-it-till-you-make-it funding negotiations with the UN, and improbably befriends the brilliant and witty Syrian refugees who make up her team at the youth center. Relatable and boldly honest, AT THE EDGE OF THE KNOWN WORLD will change how you see your world.

I probably should have been an anthropologist, because this book is about catapulting myself into a foreign world, culture, and workplace, and ingratiating myself with a team who at first viewed me as a three-headed alien. This experience was beautiful, meaningful, exhausting, absurd, funny, and life-altering, and I’ve had this book inside me for seven years — ever since I quit that job in late 2018.

Meanwhile in 2025, America feels like it is being quickly ripped to shreds by polarization, violent rhetoric, political division…