Emerging Writers Reading Series at KGB: Haytham el-Wardany
The Emerging Writers Reading Series features MFA students (the "emerging writers") from a mix of genres reading alongside a headlining author. Tonight will feature renowned writer Haytham el-Wardany along with the talents of Melissa Lauer, Suchita Chadha, Emma Zimmerman, Lily Kaylor Honoré, and Margaret Jameson.
Open to the public. All attendees are required to RSVP in advance; please click here.
Please note that KGB Bar is not wheelchair accessible.
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COVID-19 Protocol
Masks are optional. All attendees must be in compliance with NYU’s COVID-19 vaccination requirements (fully vaccinated and boosted, once eligible and by NYU’s deadline). Visitors (i.e. anyone who is not a current NYU student or employee) should be prepared to present proof of compliance and a government-issued ID if asked to do so.
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Haytham el-Wardany is an Egyptian writer and translator. He lives and works in Berlin, and writes short stories and experimental prose. His praxis focuses on fiction, especially short stories, and nonfiction formats, like essays, and fragmental prose. He is the recipient of the Keith Haring Fellowship in Art and Activism (2022/2023), and currently teaching the spring semester 2023 at Bard College, New York.
Reflecting on the experiences and aftermath of protests and uprisings in Egypt and the surrounding region, el-Wardany’s work explores what it means to live together. His current research concerns examining the fugitive and fragile spaces where the process of inheriting a (traumatic) past can take place. His latest book, Banat Awa and The Missing Letters, just came out in Arabic in January 2023. It considers forgotten expressions of hope within Arabic fables—where animals speak and humans listen—as crucial to a moment of post “Arab Spring” speechlessness. In previous publications, including The Book of Sleep (Al-Karma 2017, Seagull Books 2020, by Robin Moger) and How to Disappear (Kayfa ta 2013-2017), el-Wardany has examined the agency and potential of passivity, through regimes of listening and the dialectics of sleep and vigilance amid social protests. Forthcoming, Things That Can’t Be Fixed, short story collection, translated by Katharine Halls.
Photo via Para Site