BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/Detroit X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Detroit BEGIN:VEVENT UID:34298@arabamerica.com DTSTART;TZID=America/Detroit:20250515T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Detroit:20250515T190000 DTSTAMP:20250413T232510Z URL:https://www.arabamerica.com/events/bookpeople-presents-austin-swana-wr iters-panel/ SUMMARY:BookPeople Presents: Austin SWANA Writers Panel DESCRIPTION:AUSTIN\, TX\n\nPlease welcome local Southwest Asian and North A frican authors Dalia Azim\, Maurice Chammah\, Sarah Cypher\, and Lilas Tah a for an Austin SWANA Writers Panel!\n\nThis event is free and open to the public.\n\n Start time: 7:00 P.M.\n Run time: 45-60 minutes\, followed by a signing line.\n Location: The second floor of BookPeople.\n\nThe aut hors will be signing and personalizing copies of their books after the spe aking portion of the event.\n\n To get a book signed\, a copy of the even t book or an item of equal value must be purchased from BookPeople.\n\nGui delines:\n\n Seating will be on a first-come\, first-served basis.\n\n\n If you have any other questions\, please visit our Eventbrite FAQ. If you r question isn't covered in the FAQ\, feel free to email us at online@book people.com.\n All event guidelines are subject to change.\n BookPeople r eserves the right to cancel or postpone this event if necessary.\n There will not be a live stream or recording available.\n\nAbout the books:\n\nC ountry of Origin is a multigenerational family saga that cuts between poli tical revolution in 1950s Egypt and the personal revolutions of four famil y members whose lives intersect around the disappearance of one of their o wn.\n\nLet the Lord Sort Them is a nonfiction book about the death penalty in Texas through the lives of people it has touched\, exploring what the institution tells us about crime and punishment in America. Chammah's fort hcoming Arab/Jew is a memoir that investigates the lives of the author's f ather and his extended family\, Jews from the Arab world whose lives were transformed by Zionism and colonialism after centuries of living alongside Muslims and Christians in Aleppo\, Syria.\n\nIn The Skin and Its Girl\, a young\, queer Palestinian American woman pieces together her great aunt's secrets in this sweeping debut\, a family saga confronting questions of s exual identity\, exile\, and lineage.\n\nIn Bitter Almonds\, Omar is an or phaned Palestinian born into chaos\, displaced by violence and holding on to an impossible love that gives him hope. Nadia is maturing into womanhoo d in a refugee community in Damascus\, confronted with a cruel load thrust upon her by a selfish brother. Will she break out of her traditional soci al mold to create her own destiny?\n\nAbout the authors:\n\nDalia Azim’s writing has appeared in The Washington Post\, The New York Times\, Americ an Short Fiction\, Aperture\, Poets &\; Writers\, Glimmer Train\, and O ther Voices\, among other places. Her first novel\, Country of Origin\, wa s published in 2022. She is the Texas Book Festival’s COO.\n\nMaurice Ch ammah is a journalist and staff writer at The Marshall Project\, where he reports on the U.S. criminal justice system\, and was on a team that won t he 2021 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. He was the host of the podc ast Just Say You're Sorry\, and an upcoming podcast project with Serial Pr oductions. He has also published essays about his family history in the Mi ddle East and is working on a book titled Arab/Jew.\n\nSarah Cypher's debu t novel was a Stonewall Honor Book also shortlisted for the 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction. Her writing has appeared in The Rumpus\, the W ashington Post\, Lit Hub\, Electric Literature\, Mizna\, the North America n Review\, and others. Currently serving on the board of the Radius of Ara b American Writers (RAWI)\, she grew up in a Lebanese family near Pittsbur gh and now lives in Austin with her wife.\n\nLilas Taha is a writer at hea rt\, an electrical engineer by education and training\, and an advocate fo r domestic abuse victims by choice. She was born in Kuwait to a Palestinia n father and a Syrian mother and immigrated to the U.S. because of the Gul f War in 1990. Lilas won the 2019 Best Book Awards of the American Book-Fe st for her novel Lost in Thyme\, followed by its sequel\, Found in Thyme. She also won the 2017 International Book Awards for her novel Bitter Almon ds.\n\nBy purchasing a book from BookPeople\, you are not only supporting a local\, independent business – you’re showing publishers that they s hould continue sending authors to BookPeople.\n\nThank you for supporting Dalia Azim\, Maurice Chammah\, Sarah Cypher\, Lilas Taha\, and your local independent bookstore! ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.arabamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2 025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-13-at-7.32.22 PM.png LOCATION:BookPeople\, 603 North Lamar Boulevard\, Austin\, TX\, 78703\, Uni ted States GEO:30.271849;-97.752901 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=603 North Lamar Boulevard\, Austin\, TX\, 78703\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=BookPeople :geo:30.271849,-97.752901 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Detroit X-LIC-LOCATION:America/Detroit BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250309T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR