Book Talk with Dr. Jenny Lynn Kelly
2023-05-22 16:00 - 18:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Virtual
We are writing to invite you to a special virtual event and ask you to mark your calendar to join us on May 22, 2023, at 7:00PM EST for a book talk with Dr. Jenny Lynn Kelly. Dr. Kelly is a former Eyewitness Palestine delegate, faculty member at the University of California Santa Cruz, and author of the recently-released Invited to Witness: Solidarity Tourism Across Occupied Palestine. The event will be hosted via Zoom and donors of an eligible amount will receive a signed copy of Dr. Kelly’s book, so keep an eye out for the registration link coming soon!

Town Hall Seattle: Raja Shehadeh — 'We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir'
2023-05-24 18:00 - 20:00 | Town Hall, 1119 8th Ave, Seattle, WA, 98101, United States
About the event. . .
In his life, Aziz Shehadeh was many things — among them a lawyer, a political detainee, and the father of activist and author, Raja Shehadeh.
Raja’s latest book, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I, is a subtle psychological portrait of a complicated father-son relationship. Set against the backdrop of continuing political unrest, Raja describes his failure as a young man to recognize his father’s courage as an activist, and, in turn, his father’s inability to appreciate Raja’s own efforts in campaigning for Palestinian human rights. Then in 1985, Aziz Shehadeh is murdered, and Raja undergoes a profound and irrevocable change.
We Could Have Been Friends acts in part as the story of Palestine’s continual fight against multiple foreign powers, but at its core presents a poignant unraveling of a complex father-son relationship, unlike many we have seen before.

Book Reading Event with Wagih Abu-Rish
2023-05-27 16:00 - 19:00 | Cherry Street Village, 720 25th Avenue, Seattle, WA, United States
Book Reading Event with
Wagih Abu-Rish
The latest novel by Wagih Aburish is a story of love,
determination, and political intrigue: Nad of Nadide
reveals that love, whether between two of the same
ethnicity, or between lovers who never expected to
cross ethnic boundaries, is one worth fighting for, at
the cost of defying all norms and challenges.
Wagih’s debut novel is a sweeping story of love, loss,
and the power of loyalty in the face of conflicting
ideologies and religious beliefs.
“Deftly crafted with impressive attention to historical
detail and context, Replenishing the Sea of Galilee is
an inherently riveting read and one that will prove to be
an enduringly popular and appreciated addition to
community library General Fiction in general, and
Jewish/Palestinian Historical/Cultural Fiction
collections in particular.”
—Midwest Book Review
Cherry Street Village
720 25th Avenue Seattle, WA 98122
May 27, 2023 | 4-7pm
Appetizers, discussion, Q&A

Author Signing with Local Author Wagih Abu-Rish
2023-06-03 13:00 - 16:00 | Barnes & Noble: Northgate, Northgate Mall 401 NE Northgate Way #1100, Seattle, WA, 98125, United States
ABOUT THIS EVENT
Meet local author Wagih Abu-Rish and explore this deeply emotional historical romance. From 1pm to 4pm, the author will be present to showcase his book! Don’t miss out on a chance to explore something new and exciting.

Rainbow Parenting w/ Lindz Amer at Powell's Books
2023-06-03 14:00 - 16:00 | Powell Books, 1005 W Burnside St., Portland, OR, 97209, United States
Lindz Amer
Saturday, June 3 @ 2pm (PT) / Powell’s City of Books
In the face of so many injustices across society for LGBTQ+ people, it can be easy for parents of young children to feel helpless and hopeless. While they may not be able to address every problem across the country, there’s a simple place to start: right at home. Rainbow Parenting (St. Martin’s Griffin) is an essential stepping stone for adults who want to raise and teach kids in a queer-affirming way, but might not know how. Lindz Amer, the founder of Queer Kid Stuff, an award-winning LGBTQ+ educational webseries for children and families, is an indispensable guide, leading readers through practical applications, important LGBTQ+ history, key lessons in intersectionality, pronouns, social justice, and more. Divided by sections that address kids’ individual ages — from infancy to kindergarten — this joyful and approachable book shares a bit of hope and starts with the understanding that anyone can spread queer joy. By giving parents and their kids a vocabulary to express themselves, Rainbow Parenting ultimately aims to create more empathetic adults — and spreads a message of radical acceptance in a world where it’s sometimes dangerous to just be yourself.
Preorder a Signed Edition

Book Reading Event with Amal Sedky
2023-06-03 16:00 - 19:00 | Cherry Street Village, 720 25th Avenue, Seattle, WA, United States
Book Reading Event
Escape to Aswan with Amal Sedky
Cherry Street Village
720 25th Avenue Seattle, WA 98122
May 27, 2023 | 4-7pm
Appetizers, discussion, Q&A

Honoring Palestinian Fathers with PFC
2023-06-17 11:00 - 13:00
Palestinian Feminist Collective (PFC) warmly invites you to join us for our June 2023 Feminist Futures Program. This month we are honoring Palestinian fathers with a virtual event meant to create space for, honor and recognize the complex lived experiences and realities of Palestinian fathers. We will be hosting two incredible speakers: Raja Shehadeh, author of the memoir We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I, and Abeer Otman, postdoctoral scholar, who will unpack how Zionist settler colonialism impinges on Palestinian fatherhood, as well as how fathers defy settler colonialism by showing love, care, and protection for their families and homes. As Palestinian feminists, we will conceptualize: What are the experiences of Palestinian fathers – diverse and complicated? How do we tell these stories of fatherhood? How can we continue to hold them and make space for them in our pursuit of Palestinian liberation?

Abeer Otman’s postdoctoral research investigates father-child connectivity under the settler-colonial context. She has a doctorate in social work from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her doctoral research focused on fathers and fatherhood in a settler colonial context: the case of occupied East Jerusalem (OEJ). As a community and social worker in East Jerusalem for more than ten years, she engages in local activities concerning fulfillment of socio-economic rights, improving physical spaces, developing social and educational services.
Raja Shehadeh is a Palestinian lawyer, human rights activist, and writer. He co-founded the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq in 1979. He is the author of several books, including Palestinian Walks, which he won the Orwell Prize in 2008. In addition to his legal work, Shehadeh has written a number of books about Palestine through the lens of his life, including Strangers in the House (2002), Occupation Diaries (2012), and his latest, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir (2022).

Online Class: Spotlight on Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad With Heba F. El-Shazli
2023-06-20 10:00 - 12:00 | Virtual
Isabella Hammad’s new novel, Enter Ghost, features an actor’s return to Palestine via the staging of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the West Bank which reflects the turmoil within Palestinian society. If you enjoyed her first debut novel, The Parisian, then please join us on another journey into Palestinian society and a quest for self-healing, political knowledge, and a painful awakening. One Tuesday, June 20th, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. EDT
Online

Mona Awad with Kira Jane Buxton — 'Rouge: A Novel'
2023-09-18 19:00 - 20:30 | Third Place Books – Seward Park, 5041 Wilson Ave S, Seattle, WA, 98118, United States
Third Place Books is thrilled to welcome Mona Awad to our Seward Park store! Awad will be discussing Rouge, her new novel which holds up a warped mirror to our relationship with mortality, our collective fixation with the surface, and the wondrous, deep longing that might lie beneath. She will be joined in conversation by Kira Jane Buxton, the staff-favorite author of Feral Creatures and Hollow Kingdom. This event is free and open to the public.
For important updates, registration is highly recommended in advance. This event will include a public signing and time for audience Q&A. Sustain our author series by purchasing a copy of the featured book!
Click here for more about our COVID-19 policies for in-person events.
Having trouble accessing Eventbrite? Click here.
https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/event/mona-awad-kira-jane-buxton

Mona Awad in Conversation With Leni Zumas [Portland]
2023-09-21 19:00 - 21:00 | Powell Books, 1005 W Burnside St., Portland, OR, 97209, United States
Mona Awad in Conversation With Leni Zumas
Thursday, September 21 @ 7pm (PT) / Powell’s City of Books
From Mona Awad, author of Bunny, comes a horror-tinted, gothic fairy tale about a lonely dress shop clerk whose mother’s unexpected death sends her down a treacherous path in pursuit of youth and beauty. Can she escape her mother’s fate — and find a connection that is more than skin deep? For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience. With the help of a pair of red shoes, Belle is lured into the barbed embrace of La Maison de Méduse, the same lavish, culty spa to which her mother was devoted. There, Belle discovers the frightening secret behind her (and her mother’s) obsession with the mirror — and the great shimmering depths (and demons) that lurk on the other side of the glass. Snow White meets Eyes Wide Shut in Awad’s surreal descent into the dark side of beauty, envy, grief, and the complicated love between mothers and daughters. With black humor and seductive horror, Rouge (S&S/Marysue Rucci Books) explores the cult-like nature of the beauty industry — as well as the danger of internalizing its pitiless gaze. Brimming with California sunshine and blood-red rose petals, Rouge holds up a warped mirror to our relationship with mortality, our collective fixation with the surface, and the wondrous, deep longing that might lie beneath. Awad will be joined in conversation by Leni Zumas, author of Red Clocks.

Palestine Writes Conference (in Philadelphia)
2023-09-22 - 2023-09-24
Palestine Writes is the only North American literature festival dedicated to celebrating and promoting cultural productions of Palestinian writers and artists. Born from the pervasive exclusion from or tokenization of Palestinian voices in mainstream literary institutions, Palestine Writes brings Palestinian cultural workers from all parts of Historic Palestine and our exiled Diaspora together with peers from other marginalized groups in the United States.

Book Tour: Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire
2023-09-30 | SWANA Rose Culture + Community Center, 2942 NE MLK Jr. Boulevard, Portland, OR, 97203, United States
LIGHT IN GAZA: WRITINGS BORN OF FIRE
book tour
Edited by our friends at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Light in Gaza brings together sixteen essays and poems by twelve Palestinian writers. The book includes political essays, personal narratives, economic analysis, and poetry. It imagines what the future of Gaza could be, while reaffirming the critical role of Gaza in Palestinian identity, history, and struggle for liberation. Writer and contributor Yousef M. Aljamal, a Palestinian refugee from Al-Nusierat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip will be the featured speaker.

Saturday, September 30
Time: TBD
Location: SWANA Rose Culture and Community Center
2942 NE MLK Jr. Boulevard Portland, OR 97203
Light in Gaza Book Talk

Book Tour: Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire
2023-10-01 14:00 - 15:30 | Portland State University, Smith Memorial Student Union Parkway North, 1825 SW Broadway, Portland, OR, 97201, United States
LIGHT IN GAZA: WRITINGS BORN OF FIRE
book tour
Edited by our friends at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Light in Gaza brings together sixteen essays and poems by twelve Palestinian writers. The book includes political essays, personal narratives, economic analysis, and poetry. It imagines what the future of Gaza could be, while reaffirming the critical role of Gaza in Palestinian identity, history, and struggle for liberation. Writer and contributor Yousef M. Aljamal, a Palestinian refugee from Al-Nusierat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip will be the featured speaker.

Sunday, October 1, 2-3:30 p.m.
Portland State University, Smith Memorial Student Union Parkway North, Room 101
1825 SW Broadway, Portland, OR, 97201
Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER)-Portland State presents
Gaza’s Role in the Palestine National Movement

Book Tour: Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire
2023-10-02 19:00 - 21:30 | New Traditions, 300 5th Ave SW, Olympia, WA, 98501, United States
LIGHT IN GAZA: WRITINGS BORN OF FIRE
book tour
Edited by our friends at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Light in Gaza brings together sixteen essays and poems by twelve Palestinian writers. The book includes political essays, personal narratives, economic analysis, and poetry. It imagines what the future of Gaza could be, while reaffirming the critical role of Gaza in Palestinian identity, history, and struggle for liberation. Writer and contributor Yousef M. Aljamal, a Palestinian refugee from Al-Nusierat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip will be the featured speaker.

Monday, October 2, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
New Traditions Fair Trade
300 5th Ave SW, Olympia, WA 98501
The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice & JVP-Tacoma present
Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, with speakers Yousef Aljamal and Jennifer Bing

Book Tour: Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire
2023-10-03 12:00 - 13:30 | Tacoma Community College, 6501 South 19th Street, Tacoma, WA, 98466, United States
LIGHT IN GAZA: WRITINGS BORN OF FIRE
book tour
Edited by our friends at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Light in Gaza brings together sixteen essays and poems by twelve Palestinian writers. The book includes political essays, personal narratives, economic analysis, and poetry. It imagines what the future of Gaza could be, while reaffirming the critical role of Gaza in Palestinian identity, history, and struggle for liberation. Writer and contributor Yousef M. Aljamal, a Palestinian refugee from Al-Nusierat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip will be the featured speaker.

Tuesday, October 3, 12:00 p.m.
Tacoma Community College
6501 South 19th Street, Tacoma, WA 98466. Building 11, Room 119
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)-Tacoma & the Rachel Corrie Foundation present
Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, with speakers Yousef Aljamal and Jennifer Bing

Book Tour: Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire
2023-10-04 12:00 - 13:00 | Seattle Pacific University, 3307 3rd Ave W, Seattle, WA, 98119, United States
LIGHT IN GAZA: WRITINGS BORN OF FIRE
book tour
Edited by our friends at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Light in Gaza brings together sixteen essays and poems by twelve Palestinian writers. The book includes political essays, personal narratives, economic analysis, and poetry. It imagines what the future of Gaza could be, while reaffirming the critical role of Gaza in Palestinian identity, history, and struggle for liberation. Writer and contributor Yousef M. Aljamal, a Palestinian refugee from Al-Nusierat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip will be the featured speaker.

Wednesday, October 4, 12:00-1:00 p.m.
Seattle Pacific University
3307 3rd Ave W., Seattle, WA 98119, Eaton Hall 112
Middle East Studies Event: Panel on Health and Medicine in Gaza

Book Tour: Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire
2023-10-05 17:30 - 19:00 | University of Washington – Miller Hall, 2012 Skagit Ln, Seattle, WA, 98105, United States
I wanted to invite you to join SUPER UW and Samidoun Seattle on October 5th from 5:30pm – 7:00pm at Miller Hall 301 as we welcome Yousef Aljamal and Jennifer Bing for a discussion moderated by Dr. Alice Rothchild of the new anthology Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire.

Light in Gaza is a seminal, moving, and wide-ranging anthology of Palestinian writers and artists. It constitutes a collective effort to organize and center Palestinian voices in the ongoing struggle. As political discourse shifts toward futurism as a means of reimagining a better way of living, beyond the violence and limitations of colonialism, Light in Gaza is an urgent and powerful intervention into an important political moment.
Register at bit.ly/LightInGazaUW
Facebook Event: https://fb.me/e/30ECERxWN

Book Tour: Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire
2023-10-06 17:30 - 19:00 | St James Presbyterian Church (Bellingham), 910 14th St, Bellingham, WA, 98225, United States
LIGHT IN GAZA: WRITINGS BORN OF FIRE
book tour
Edited by our friends at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Light in Gaza brings together sixteen essays and poems by twelve Palestinian writers. The book includes political essays, personal narratives, economic analysis, and poetry. It imagines what the future of Gaza could be, while reaffirming the critical role of Gaza in Palestinian identity, history, and struggle for liberation. Writer and contributor Yousef M. Aljamal, a Palestinian refugee from Al-Nusierat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip will be the featured speaker.

Friday, October 6, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
St. James Presbyterian Church
910 14th St, Bellingham, WA 98225
Amnesty International & community colleagues present Access Denied: Human Rights and Health Care Refused in Gaza

Ghassan Zeineddine in Conversation With Omar El Akkad [Portland]
2023-11-03 19:00 - 20:00 | Powell Books, 1005 W Burnside St., Portland, OR, 97209, United States
Spanning several decades, Ghassan Zeineddine’s debut collection examines the diverse range and complexities of the Arab American community in Dearborn, Michigan. In ten tragicomic stories, Zeineddine explores themes of identity, generational conflicts, war trauma, migration, sexuality, queerness, home and belonging, and more. In Dearborn (Tin House), a father teaches his son how to cheat the IRS and hide their cash earnings inside of frozen chickens. Tensions heighten within a close-knit group of couples when a mysterious man begins to frequent the local gym pool, dressed in Speedos printed with nostalgic images of Lebanon. And a failed stage actor attempts to drive a young Lebanese man with ambitions of becoming a Hollywood action hero to LA, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have other plans. By turns wildly funny, incisive, and deeply moving, Dearborn introduces readers to an arresting new voice in contemporary fiction and invites us all to consider what it means to be part of a place and community, and how it is that we help one another survive. Zeineddine will be joined in conversation by Omar El Akkad, author of What Strange Paradise.

2023 Arab American Book Awards Ceremony: Virtual
2023-11-11 15:00 - 17:00 | Virtual
6 p.m. ET Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023

2023 Arab American Book Awards Ceremony
FREE with RSVP
Register for in-person attendance OR Register for virtual attendance
Join the 2023 Arab American Book Award winners and honorable mentions, featuring awardees Chelsea Abdullah, Noor Naga, Edward E. Curtis IV, Ghassan Zeineddine, Nabeel Abraham, Sally Howell, Zeina Hashem Beck, Nora Lester Murad, Cathy Camper, Evelyn Alsultany, Louise Cainkar, Pauline Homsi Vinson, Amira Jarmakani, Luma Mufleh, Noor Hindi, Lubna Safi, Naomi Shihab Nye, Rashida Tlaib, Adam Tlaib and Miranda Paul for a celebratory reading of the winning books. The event will also be livestreamed.

Children's Literature with Palestinian Kidlit Authors on Instagram Live
2023-11-30 14:00 - 15:00 | Virtual
For #ReadPalestineWeek @desibookaunty and I will be hosting Palestinian Kidlit authors on Instagram Live to talk about children’s literature that celebrates our culture!
Join us to hear @librarycatnyc and @omarabedwrites and @hannahmoushabeck recommend books for young readers

Author Meets BookTok: Sim Kern and Rashid Khalidi on “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine”
2023-12-04 07:00 - 08:30 | Virtual
10am EST / 3pm GMT / 5pm Gaza
Register: https://tinyurl.com/msmdep3u
Join us for this can’t miss event: Sim Kern in conversation with Rashid Khalidi, author of the New York Times bestseller, and Booktok favorite, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017. Hosted by Librarians and Archivists with Palestine, we will explore Palestinian history, learn about Gaza’s place in it, and how history can help all of us, especially book influencers, meet this moment of mobilization against genocide and war. We are proud to host this event as part of Read Palestine Week.
This event will be recorded.

Book Launch: The Trinity of Fundamentals
2024-02-02 15:00 - 17:00 | Virtual
JOIN US FOR THE BOOK LAUNCH
Join us for a book launch for The Trinity of Fundamentals with members of the Palestinian Youth Movement and 1804 Books! The Trinity of Fundamentals is the fictionalized account of former Palestinian prisoner Rafeedie’s nine-year experience hiding from the Occupation, now presented in its first-ever English translation.
The event will be a discussion of the book with editors from PYM and 1804 Books, followed by a Q&A with audience members. The discussion will also be live-streamed.
Register for the Book Launch Event

Author Alice Rothchild: Old Enough to Know
2024-02-06 19:00 - 20:30 | Third Place Books – Seward Park, 5041 Wilson Ave S, Seattle, WA, 98118, United States
Tue 2/6 at 7pm, Seward Park
Third Place Books welcomes back author, activist, filmmaker, and physician Alice Rothchild for her new book for young readers.
Being the new kid is always hard, but try starting the year with a name like Mohammed Omar Mohammed Abu Srour, with a homemade lunch of humus and za’atar. On top of that, on the very first day of school, a kid tells his older hijab-wearing sister to “go back where you came from.” Mohammed and his sister love their grandmother, but she thinks her stories about life in Palestine will help them with their problems. What does Grandmother’s ancient history have to do with classroom bullies? She never learned to read and Mohammed can’t even find Palestine on a map. Feels like fourth grade’s going to last forever.
RSVP here

Author Alice Rothchild: Old Enough to Know
2024-06-08 18:00 - 19:00 | Village Books, 1200 11th Street, Bellingham, WA, 98225
All ages are welcome to join us in the Readings Gallery to celebrate Old Enough to Know, a middle grade novel that explores identity and understanding.
FREE FAMILY EVENT! Click here to reserve your spot or pre-order a copy of Old Enough to Know!*
Nine-year-old Mohammed Omar Mohammed Abu Srour and his 16-year-old sister move to a new city where they face a challenging first week of school. Their grandmother grounds them in her story: from a peasant village in Palestine, struggling for survival in Aida Refugee Camp, Bethlehem, to coming to the US.
“It unapologetically and truthfully weaves the story of Palestine, then and now, through the life young Mohammad who lives in America. A great book for young people.”
— Miko Peled, author of The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine, and Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five
“More than a story of children struggling to be accepted into a new school, this tale weaves in their family history in another land, a dark narrative of loss and dispossession that also forms their identity. Poignant and heartbreaking, it is a story of reckoning with the past, while trying to navigate the present, in a world that does not understand.”
— Fida Jiryis, author of Stranger in My Own Land
Alice Rothchild, author, filmmaker, and physician, is focused on human rights and social justice. She writes and lectures widely, is the author of a number of books addressing health and human rights issues in Israel/Palestine, and a young adult and a middle grade novel that explore the region for young people. She was last in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza in August 2023.

Palestinian Children's Day of Action: Story Sunbirds Read Aloud
2024-11-07 | Virtual
You’re invited to our Story Sunbirds Read-Aloud online via Zoom this Thursday, November 7, from 8am to 7pm EST.
And we want to share the line-up of authors and illustrators with you!
Just a few of our participating children’s book creators include:
Aida Salazar, Daniel José Older, Maysa Odeh, Eve Ewing, Hatem Aly, Susan Muaddi Darraj, Isabel Quintero, Hannah Moushabeck, and Jacqueline Woodson!!
We’re adding more kidlit folks before Thursday, but we wanted to share most of the authors and illustrators you can for sure tune in to hear from.

There will be story-sharing, draw-alongs, book giveaways, and solidarity with the children in Gaza who pled with the world one year ago outside Al Shifa Hospital on November 7, 2023. We will read or draw for them, to honor them, for you, and to raise funds for Middle East Children’s Alliance via The People Stand With Gaza. As a community of children’s book creators, we must show our solidarity with children.

Thank you to all those participating and to the coalition members who began this Palestinian Children’s Day of Action for including the Story Sunbirds kidlit collective for all.
We’re encouraging schools, libraries, and all interested educational groups to join us during whatever time slot works for you! Plus, there will be book giveaways!

Author: Zaynab Mohammed
2024-12-03 19:00 - 21:00 | Third Place Books – Ravenna, 6504 20th Ave NE, Seattle, WA, 98115, United States
Third Place Books is thrilled to welcome Zaynab Mohammed to our Ravenna store for a reading of her new book, Are You Listening?: Weaving a Tapestry From Pain into Beauty. Blending poetry and memoir, the book explores intergenerational displacement, and speaks the truths of a woman who loses her innocence at a young age due to cultural inequity. Mohammed is a writer and an award-winning performance poet whose work pays homage to the cultures of her Iraqi, Lebanese, and Palestinian ancestors.

National Book Award Winner: Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
2024-12-06 19:00 - 20:00 | Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Avenue, Seattle, 98122, United States
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha reads from Something About Living, her National Book Award-winning third poetry collection.

This event is free and open to the public. Please help us plan for audience size by RSVPing here.
It’s nearly impossible to write poetry that holds the human desire for joy and the insistent agitations of protest at the same time, but Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s gorgeous and wide-ranging new collection Something About Living does just that. Her poems interweave Palestine’s historic suffering, the challenges of living in this world full of violence and ill will, and the gentle delights we embrace to survive that violence. Khalaf Tuffaha’s elegant poems sing the fractured songs of Diaspora while remaining clear-eyed to the cause of the fracturing: the multinational hubris of colonialism and greed.
This collection is her witness to our collective unraveling, vowel by vowel, syllable by syllable. “Let the plural be a return of us” the speaker of “On the Thirtieth Friday We Consider Plurals” says and this plurality is our tenuous humanity and the deep need to hang on to kindness in our communities. In these poems Khalaf Tuffaha reminds us that love isn’t an idea; it is a radical act. Especially for those who, like this poet, travel through the world vigilantly, but steadfastly remain heart first. —Adrian Matejka, author of Somebody Else Sold the World
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha is a poet, essayist and translator. She is the author of Water & Salt (Red Hen), winner of the 2018 Washington State Book Award, Kaan & Her Sisters (Trio House Press), finalist for the Firecracker Award, and Something About Living (UAkron, 2024), a finalist for the 2024 National Book Award and winner of the 2022 Akron Prize for Poetry. Her writing has been published in journals including Los Angeles Review of Books, Michigan Quarterly Revie, the Nation, Poets.org, and Prairie Schooner and in anthologies including The Long Devotion and We Call to the Eye and the Night. She was the translator and curator of the 2022 series “Poems from Palestine” at the Baffler magazine. She is currently curating a year-long subscription of Palestinian poetry books with Open Books, Seattle’s poetry-only bookstore. For more about her work, visit www.lenakhalaftuffaha.com

Naomi Shihab Nye: Grace Notes — Poems about Families
2025-02-06 19:30 - 21:30 | Town Hall, 1119 8th Ave, Seattle, WA, 98101, United States
Rental Partner: Seattle Arts & Lectures presents
Naomi Shihab Nye
Grace Notes — Poems about Families
Thu Feb 6, 2025 | 7:30 pm PST
https://townhallseattle.org/event/naomi-shihab-nye/

Naomi Shihab Nye has spent more than forty years as a self-described “wandering poet,” traveling the country and the world to lead writing workshops and inspiring students of all ages. Beloved by generations of readers and writers, Nye uses her writing with themes of love, family, and resilience to attest to our shared humanity.
National Book Award Finalist and former Young People’s Poet Laureate Naomi Shihab Nye’s Grace Notes: Poems about Families celebrates family and community. This rich collection of one hundred never-before-published poems is also the poet’s most personal work to date. With poems about her own childhood and school years, her parents and grandparents, and the people who have touched and shaped her life in so many ways, this is an emotional and sparkling collection to savor, share, and read again and again.

Virtual Conversation with Mohammed El-Kurd and Robin D.G. Kelley
2025-02-11 16:30 - 17:30 | Virtual
On Tuesday, February 11th, join Mohammed El-Kurd and Robin D.G. Kelley for a virtual conversation to mark the release of Perfect Victims.

Perfect Victims is an urgent affirmation of the Palestinian condition of resistance and refusal―an ode to the steadfastness of a nation.
Palestine is a microcosm of the world: on fire, stubborn, fragmented, dignified. While a settler colonial state continues to inflict devastating violence, fundamental truths are deliberately obscured—the perpetrators are coddled while the victims are blamed and placed on trial.
Why must Palestinians prove their humanity? And what are the implications of such an infuriatingly impossible task? With fearless prose and lyrical precision, Mohammed El-Kurd refuses a life spent in cross-examination. Rather than asking the oppressed to perform a perfect victimhood, El-Kurd asks friends and foes alike to look Palestinians in the eye, forgoing both deference and condemnation.
How we see Palestine reveals how we see each other; how we see everything else. Masterfully combining candid testimony, history, and reportage, Perfect Victims presents a powerfully simple demand: dignity for the Palestinian.
Pre-order Perfect Victims through Bookshop or wherever good books are sold: http://www.bookshop.org/a/1039/9798888903155
***Register through Ticket Tailor to receive a link to the live-streamed video on the day of the event. This event will also be recorded and captioning will be provided.***
Speakers:
Mohammed El-Kurd is a writer, poet, journalist, and organizer from Jerusalem, occupied Palestine. He is the Nation’s first-ever Palestine Correspondent and editor-at-large at Mondoweiss, the recipient of numerous honors and awards, and the author of the highly-acclaimed poetry collection Rifqa, which has been translated into several languages.
Robin D.G. Kelley is Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA. He is the author of Hammer and Hoe, Race Rebels, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, and Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, among other titles. His writing has been featured in the Journal of American History, American Historical Review, Black Music Research Journal, African Studies Review, New York Times, The Crisis, The Nation, and Voice Literary Supplement.
