Sanaa Seif with Sharif Abdel Kouddous (in person)

Making this Seattle visit as part of a national, in-person tour around the U.S. are Egyptian activist, film editor, and one-time political prisoner Sanaa Seif, along with Cairo-based independent journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous. They will be discussing the extraordinary book of Sanaa Seif’s imprisoned brother Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s writings, You Have Not Been Defeated: Selected Works (Seven Stories). Alaa Abd El-Fattah is probably the highest profile political prisoner currently being held in Egypt – one of many, however, including Sanaa Seif herself until recently.

“You can’t jail a revolution. Alaa Abd el-Fattah is proof. These essays, many handwritten and smuggled from a prison cell, breathe life into the 2011 moment, what shaped its revolutionary possibilities and terrible betrayals. This book is a memory of Tahrir Square that still reverberates like a heartbeat throughout the world.”– Nick Estes.

“In a totalitarian system where even ideas are punishable with imprisonment, this collection of essays from one of Egypt’s most high-profile political prisoners is like an oasis in a desolate landscape. Part manifesto, part memoir, and part record of some of Abd El-Fattah’s trial scenes that are more than worthy of Kafka, the book contains passages smuggled out from Cairo’s infamous Tora prison.”– Ruth Michaelson, The Guardian.

“Written with blood and fire, You Have Not Yet Been Defeated is a brilliant and devastating testament by one of Egypt’s great revolutionaries.”– Molly Crabapple.

This is scheduled to be a live/in-person program at Elliott Bay Book Company. Registration is optional.