Category: Events
On the Downtown Writers Jam Podcast with Brad King

Interview: Must Read Fiction
Erin Popelka interviewed me from Spokane, WA, for her series Must Read Fiction:
Harvard Book Store Talk with Claire Messud
The Harvard Book Store organized a reading and discussion with my friend and former professor, the fabulous novelist Claire Messud on Friday, July 10th. Recording is here.
What is the Role of Writers in Times of Crisis?
A conversation with Ishmael Beah, the inaugural event organized by Bookshop.org.
More information and registration is here.
ArabLit Quarterly TV: Meet the Banu Sasan
From Rabat to Tarapoto, Marcia and I discussing Abu Dulaf’s ode to thievery and beggary and charlatanry and blasphemy, which is in the ALQ Crime Issue.
The video is here.
Let’s Talk Books, with Christina Chiu and Toby Muse
On July 7, 2020, Christina Chiu and the New York Writers Workshop invited me and the investigative journalist Toby Muse to present our books. We talked about the drug war, the war on terror, fiction vs nonfiction, and gin vs tonic.
The recording is here:
To Remain Nameless Launch
Events
I participated in Bookstore.org’s inaugural online event: “What is the Role of the Writer in a Time of Crisis?” on July 16, 2020 — a reading and discussion with Ishmael Beah, whose novel Little Family also came out during the pandemic. Sadly, the app crashed during the talk, so it wasn’t recorded.
I participated in Les Bleus, a virtual literary salon organized by Paige McGreevy, a UN worker out of Nairobi onĀ Saturday, July 11th. The Les Bleus IG page is here: https://www.instagram.com/lesbleusliterarysalon/?hl=en
The Harvard Book Store organized a reading and discussion with my friend and former professor, the fabulous novelist Claire Messud on Friday, July 10th. Recording is here.
Christina Chiu and the New York Writers Workshop invited me and the investigative journalist Toby Muse to present our books on July 7, 2020, . We talked about the drug war, the war on terror, fiction vs nonfiction, and gin vs tonic. The recording is here:
I discussed my translation of the Song of the Banu Sasan with Arab Lit Quarterly editor Marcia Lynx Qualey, for the first episode of Arab Lit Q TV, also on July 7. The video is here.
McNally Jackson arranged a virtual launch on May 25, 2020 for To Remain Nameless. In conversation with Wayne Koestenbaum, whose book of essays, Figure It Out, came out at the same time. Footage is here:
Rescue Night at Berl’s: I read at Berl’s Poetry Bookshop with Tessa Micaela, Sara Deniz Akant, Vanessa Jimenez Gabb, and Adrienne Raphel, on Feb. 27, 2020.
Rescue night at Berl’s
Feb. 27, 2020 — 7 pm
Reading at Berl’s with Tessa Micaela, Sara Deniz Akant, Vanessa Jimenez Gabb, and Adrienne Raphel.