Tuesday, January 28 · 7pm EST
Free over Zoom or in-person
Brookline Booksmith, Brookline, MA

Join the Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith for a virtual event with translator Luke Leafgren to discuss and honor the release of The Tale of a Wall: Reflections on the Meaning of Hope and Freedom by Nasser Abu Srour. He will be in conversation with writer, translator, and Queens College MFA faculty member Ammiel Alcalay.

A passionate prison memoir from a Palestinian man incarcerated for over 30 years in an Israeli prison—equal parts metaphysical love story and cry for justice.

One of more than 5,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons before October 7, 2023, Nasser Abu Srour was sentenced to life without parole in 1993 after a forced confession. His extraordinary writings delve into the history of the Nakba to the Intifada of the Stones, as he navigates life within the confines of an Israeli prison.

But it is within the walls of his cell that this exceptional memoir takes an unexpected direction—Abu Srour turns the very Wall that has deprived him of freedom into his companion, his interlocutor. It becomes the source of stability that allows him to endure a chaotic, hopeless existence. The limitations of this survival strategy—and singular literary device—become painfully evident when falling in love causes Abu Srour to lose his grip on the Wall.

Only by writing the story of his imprisonment and the story of his love does Abu Srour find his way back. In doing so, he has created a work of art that transcends his pain while shining a glaring light on the ongoing tragedy of the Palestinian situation.

Nasser Abu Srour was arrested in 1993, accused of being an accomplice to the murder of an Israeli intelligence officer, and sentenced to life in prison. While incarcerated, Abu Srour completed the final semester of a bachelor’s degree in English from Bethlehem University, and obtained a master’s degree in political science from Al-Quds University. The Tale of a Wall is his first book to appear in English.

Luke Leafgren is an Assistant Dean of Harvard College. He has translated seven novels from Arabic and has twice received the Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation, in 2018 for Muhsin Al-Ramli’s The President’s Gardens and in 2023 for Najwa Barakat’s Mister N.

Moderator Ammiel Alcalay is a poet, novelist, translator, essayist, critic, and scholar. His over 20 books include After Jews and Arabs, Memories of Our Future, a little history, and the forthcoming Follow the Person: Archival Encounters, as well as CONTROLLED DEMOLITION: a work in four books. His co-translation of Palestinian poet Nasser Rabah’s Gaza: The Poem Said Its Piece, is due out in early 2025. He received an American Book Award in for his work as founder and General Editor of Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative, and is a Distinguished Professor at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

What You Need to Know to Attend

This virtual event is free to attend but please consider purchasing The Tale of a Wall. Register on this page to receive a Zoom link on the day of the event. If you don’t receive a confirmation email after registering, contact us right away.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/transnational-series-luke-leafgren-with-ammiel-alcalay-tickets-1142665516319?aff=oddtdtcreator

The Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith

The Transnational Series focuses on stories of migration, the intersection of politics and literature, and works in translation and is supported by the independent bookstore Brookline Booksmith. Subscribe to the Transnational Series newsletter for information on upcoming events, book recommendations, and more.

Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Best Year in Music: 1994
Tuesday, Nov 19, 2024 from 8-10pm
L.I.C. Bar (Carriage House) 45-58 Vernon Blvd, L.I.C., NYC 11101

Literature is coming back to LIC Bar, but with a twist: it’s a celebration of music alongside words.

MFA alum Catherina LaSota will will tinker on her Fender Mustang while hosting Emily Raboteau, Brian Gresko, & Nicole Haroutunian, who will offer their reflections on the music of 1994 (considered by many to be the greatest single year of music for all time) along with some brand-new writing.

I think the bigger question is whether this is a reunion of LaSota’s reading series, or just an encore from those days–founded in 2015, LIC Reading Series quickly became one of the literary standouts in the borough of Queens, along with the rise of Newtown Literary and other reading series in Queens, such as Oh, Bernice! which was also run by QC MFA alums.

Queens may be more established now as a cultural destination in the hearts of New Yorkers, but we can always use the return of one of the best literary programs in the borough. (Just saying, Catherine, if you’re reading this!)

Catherine LaSota is just one of the amazing people who have come through the QC MFA Program. To hear about more, take a look at our Alumni Bookshelf:

Our Alumni

Fri, Nov 8, 2024
7:00 PM–8:30 PM
The Word is Change Bookstore
368 Tompkins Ave. (at Putnam), Brooklyn, NY 11216.
Free and open to all.

This Friday is the book launch of Anna Gréki’s Algeria, capital: Algiers. Translator Marine Cornuet (a QC MFA alum) will read alongside friends Radhika Singh (another QC MFA alum) who will read an excerpt of her science fiction manuscript that, like Gréki’s work, envisions liberated futures, and translator and poet David Iaconangelo (himself a current QC MFA student) who will read his translation of a poem by Miguel Hernández, one of Gréki’s inspirations. As Gréki puts it, “there will be joy / but we will forget nothing of what has happened.”

This is the kind of reading we here at the Queens College MFA Program are overjoyed to see because it shows how connected members of the QC MFA community can be. We find connections, and those connections make us better.

It’s not lost on us that the foreword is written by QC faculty member Ammiel Alcalay. This book is copublished by Lost & Found, CUNY’s innovative publishing initiative from the CUNY Graduate Center, which Ammiel edits. Algeria, capital: Algiers was written by Anna Gréki while in prison for her participation in the Algerian liberation struggle. This co-publication, shared between CUNY’s Lost & Found and worldwide with Pinsapo Press, makes this work available to English readers for the first time.

Working on cutting-edge and innovative translations with Lost & Found is just one of the many paths our students can take. To find out more of the options available to MFA students, please visit our Opportunities Page:

Opportunities

10 River Terrace New York, NY 10282 | Tuesday| October 29 | 7-9pm

In honor of our own Distinguished Professor Kimiko Hahn’s achievement as a poet, curator, and professor, Poet’s House will be holding a tribute reading at the end of the month featuring Tamiko Beyer, Mark Doty, and Roger Sedarat, and of course Kimiko Hahn herself.

Ever the innovator, Hahn’s latest book, The Ghost Forest (W.W. Norton, 2024), is not just a book of selected poems after a long and illustrious career, but a conversation–the book opens with forty-three new formally inventive poems and leading the reader back in time through selections from her ten previous volumes. This exchange between old and new work, between tradition and identity, transforms this book into a hybrid autobiography.

Hahn will read from the new poems in the collection, while guest poets will read selections of their favorite works by Hahn throughout the decades.

The reading will take place in Poets House’s Kray Hall, with a reception to follow.

As fans of poetry, we hope to see you there!