In Conversation Series: Susan Muaddi Darraj

With support from an Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Advocacy (IDEA) Innovation Grant, and in conversation with the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice, the Writers House welcomes writer and MFA alum Susan Muaddi Darraj for a reading and Q&A moderated by ISGRJ Postdoctoral Fellow andie millares.

Susan will be reading from and discussing her book Behind You Is The Sea, which was published this winter by HarperCollins and received starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus. Funny and touching, Behind You Is the Sea brings us into the homes and lives of three main families—the Baladis, the Salamehs, and the Ammars—Palestinian immigrants who’ve all found a different welcome in America. Their various fates and struggles cause their community dynamic to sizzle and sometimes explode. Behind You Is the Sea faces stereotypes about Palestinian culture head-on, and shifts perspectives to weave a complex social fabric replete with weddings, funerals, broken hearts, and devastating secrets.