Kahf's work explores themes of cultural dissonance and overlap between Muslim American and other communities, both religious and secular. Syria, Islam, ethics, politics, feminism, human rights, the body, gender, and erotics often feature in her work. In her poetry book Emails From Schherazad,[4] Kahf explores many different Arab and Muslim identities and practices, frequently using humor.[14] She reconfigures many female figures of the Islamic tradition, particularly in Hagar Poems.[15]
Hagar Poems won honorable mention in the 2017 Book Awards of the Arab American National Museum.[1] Kahf won a Pushcart Prize for her creative nonfiction essay, "The Caul of Inshallah," about the difficult birth of her son, first published in River Teeth in 2010. Kahf's first book of poetry, E-mails From Scheherazad, was a finalist for the 2004 Paterson Poetry Prize. Her novel The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf was a "One Book" reading at Indiana University East (Richmond, Indiana) in 2017.[3] The novel was chosen as Book Sense Reading Group Favorite for June 2007 and as book of the year for the One Book, One Bloomington Series by the Bloomington Arts Council, Monroe County Public Library, Bloomington, Indiana, 2008.[16] Kahf won the Arkansas Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship in 2002 for poetry.
In 2004, Kahf had a column exploring sexual topics on the progressive Muslim website MuslimWakeUp!.com.[17] The column was called "Sex and the Umma" and featured short stories by her, who also hosted guest writers on the column, including Randa Jarrar, Michael Muhammad Knight, and Laila Al-Marayati. The original first column published, a short story by Kahf, "Lustrous Companions," was later re-published on the website loveinshallah.com.[18] Kahf's work on "Sex and the Umma" "earned her a torrent of attacks...the author, though at once playful and mischievous verbally and thematically, seems to be putting across an alternative image of Islam...a more progressive...one" says Layla Maleh.[19]
Kahf's poetry has featured in the installments of American neo-conceptual artist Jenny Holzer.[2] Her poem "Two Friends Like Fireflies" was set to music composed by Joseph Gregorio, commissioned by the Women's Commission Consortium of the American Choral Director's Association, and premiered by the Soli Deo Gloria Women's Chorale.[20] Kahf's work has been translated into Japanese,[21] Italian,[22][23] and Arabic.[24] Her poetry features in the BBC documentary, Poems from Syria.[25]
