Come celebrate contemporary Islamic litera ry culture with two local luminaries!
\nJoin us as the Montgomery Co unty Public Library hosts celebrated authors Eman Quotah and Majda Gama in conversation about their works. Quotah will discuss her new visceral and captivating horror debut\, The Night is Not for You\, \;and h er earlier family saga set in Saudi Arabia and the \;United States \, \;Bride of the Sea. \;Gama will engage around her body of poetry\, including the Winner of the 2023 Wandering Aengus Press prize\, < em>In the House of Modern Upbringing for Girls. \;It is bound to be a captivating conversation that you will not want to miss!
\nAuth ors will be selling copies of their books onsite\, and their works are ava ilable through the MCPL catalog. \;
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\nEman Quotah is the author o f \;The Night Is Not For You (Run For It/Orbit US and Wildfire/Orbit U K\, 2025) and Bride of the Sea (Tin House\, 2021)\, winner of the Arab Ame rican Book Award for Fiction. Her writing has appeared in The Washington P ost\, USA Today\, Literary Hub\, and other publications. She&rsquo\;s been awarded fellowships from MacDowell and Hedgebrook and grants from the Mar yland State Arts Council and the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County.
\nWhen she&rsquo\;s not writing fiction or essays\, Eman is a communications consultant. She&rsquo\;s also the secretary of the board for RAWI\, which represents writers of Southwest Asian and North African heritage. She lives with her family near Washington\, D.C.
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\nMajda Ga ma is a Beirut-born\, Arab American poet based in the Washington\, DC area . She is the author of \;In the House of \;Modern Upbringing for G irls\, winner of the Wandering Aengus Press award for poetry\, and \;T he Call of Paradise\, selected by Diane Seuss as the winner of the 2022 Tw o Sylvias Chapbook Prize.
\nShe has read her poetry and contributed to panels at the PEN/World Voices festival in New York City\, the Lit Craw l in San Francisco\, and Split This Rock in Washington\, DC. Her poetry ha s appeared nationally\, and internationally\, in journals such as AGNI\, T he Adroit Journal\, Beloit Poetry Journal\, Cordite\, Four Way Review\, Th e Fairy Tale Review\, Michigan Quarterly Review\, Nimrod\, The Offing\, Pl oughshares\, POETRY\, Prairie Schooner\, RHINO\, TriQuarterly\, Wildness\, and We Call to the Eye &\; the Night\, (Persea\, 2023)\, an anthology of love poetry by Arab Anglophone poets.
\nMajda is a multiple Pushc art\, Best New Poets\, and Best of the Net nominee\, a runner up to the RH INO Founders Prize\, a finalist in the Neil Shepard prize\, and a finalist in the Hayden&rsquo\;s Ferry Review inaugural Poetry Prize. Her honors in clude the Graybeal-Gowen award for Virgina poets\, a Gregory Djanikian sch olar award from Adroit\, and a special mention from the Pushcart Prize edi tors for important work published by a small press in 2024.
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\nThis pr ogram is recommended for adults 18+.
\nCheck out all the events comi ng up at MCPL in our calendar of \;events!
\nIncluding: Stories That Connect Us: With Local Author Hena Khan
\nQuestions about this program? Contact the branch at 240-773-9420.
\nDon't have a card right now? \; No worries! \; Find out how t o \;Get a Library Card.
\nLibrary Program Attendance (both virtual and in the branch) is limited to participants within the suggested age ra nge of the program. Children attending an MCPL program under the age of 8 must be accompanied by an adult. Adults attending a program intended for c hildren must have an accompanying child.
\nIf you plan to attend wit h a group of ten or more\, please contact the branch at least one week bef ore the program to discuss how your group might be accommodated.
\n< strong>Accommodation Requests
\nPeople who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing should request \;English-language captioning or sign-language interpretation \;at least five days bef ore the library-sponsored program they plan to attend. Contact the Assista nt Facilities and Accessibility Program Manager at 240-777-0002 with all o ther accommodation requests.
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