Celebrating Elias Khoury and Mahmoud Darwish with Ammiel Alcalay and Sinan Antoon

Join Archipelago Books in celebrating the lives of Elias Khoury (1948-2024) and Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008), two of the most revered practitioners of Arab literature. Both Darwish and Khoury were unwavering advocates for social justice and the Palestinian cause; we’re thrilled to have Ammiel Alcalay and Sinan Antoon come together to speak about their exceptionally rich lives and work. This event will have a reception to follow.

Ammiel Alcalay is a poet, novelist, translator, essayist, critic and scholar. He is the author of more than 20 books including After Jews and Arabs, Memories of Our Future and Controlled Demolition: a work in four books. He is Distinguished Professor at Queens College, CUNY, and the CUNY Graduate Center in New York.

Sinan Antoon is a poet, novelist, translator and scholar. He has published two collections of poetry and five novels. His most recent work is Postcards from the Underworld (Seagull Books, 2023).  His scholarly works include The Poetics of the Obscene in Pre-Modern Arabic Literature and numerous articles on modern Arabic poetry and contemporary Iraqi culture. His essays and creative writings in Arabic have appeared in various journals in the Arab world and in English in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, Journal of Palestine Studies, and Critical Times. His literary translations from Arabic include Mahmoud Darwish’s In the Presence of Absence. He is associate professor at the Gallatin School, New York University. He is co-founder and co-editor of Jadaliyya.