After the Gulf War in 1991, her family moved back to the US, living in the New York area when she was 13.[2] Jarrar studied creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College, receiving an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. She has taught College Writing, Creative Writing, and Arab-American literature. "Fresno State's a majority minority school," she describes.