Palestine Writes 2023: Sept 22-24 with Susan Muaddi Darraj, Huda Fakhreddine, and Laura Albast

<p>In this week’s show, we are in conversation with organizers of the <a href="https://palestinewrites.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">⁠Palestine Writes</a>⁠ literary and cultural festival which will take place at the University of Pennsylvania next weekend, September 22-24. The extraordinary roster of participants include Elias Khoury, Isabella Hammad, Susan Abulhawa, Mosab Abu Toha, Huwaida Arraf, Noura Erakat, Maytha Alhassen, and many, many other Palestinian writers, cultural workers and activists, as well as Palestine solidarity campaigners like Roger Waters, Andrew Ross, Marc Lamont Hill, and others. Regular listeners to SWANA Region Radio will recognize many of these names from our past shows. In addition to individual and group readings and spoken word performances, by a rich array of Palestinian writers, there are panels on publishing, on Palestinian feminism, on writing, immigration and exile, and performances of dabke, a photography exhibition, and events for children. </p> <p><br></p> <p>Palestine Writes 2023’s packed schedule of events showcases to US audiences the wealth of Palestinian culture in so many areas. We will talk to several of the remarkable and hard-working organizers of this event, Susan Muaddi Daraj, Laura Albast, and Huda Fakhreddine, about the history, the goals, and the cultural politics of Palestine Writes, and hopefully get a sneak preview of some of the panels and events schedule for the coming weekend. Susan Muaddi Darraj is an award-winning writer of books for adults and children, including A Curious Land: Stories from Home, The Inheritance of Exile, and the forthcoming Behind You is the Sea. She has won an American Book Award, two Arab American Book Awards, and a Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artists Award. In 2018, she was named a 2018 USA Artists Ford Fellow. Huda Fakhreddine is Associate Professor of Arabic literature at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of many books, including The Arabic Prose Poem: Poetic Theory and Practice and i