This event features live readings from two incredible Arab-American poets Priscilla Wathington and Lena Khalaf Tuffaha with the theme of REVOLUTION.
The readings will be followed by a discussion moderated by Zeina Azzam.
This event would not be possible without the assistance and support of Summer Farah and the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI). 
About the poets:
Priscilla Wathington is a Palestinian American poet and editor who has worked with NGOs such as the Arab American Action Network, Defense for Children International – Palestine and the Norwegian Refugee Council. The poems in her debut chapbook, PAPER AND STICK (Tram Editions, 2021), "sharply probe the way language both limns and shadows atrocities," writes Deema Shehabi. Wathington's poems have appeared in Gulf Coast, Michigan Quarterly Review, Salamander, The Normal School, Mizna, Sukoon, and elsewhere. She holds a Master’s in Arab Studies from Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and sits on the board of the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI). Wathington lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Fine Arts at Warren Wilson College.
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha is a poet, essayist, and translator. Her first book of poems, Water & Salt, won the 2018 Washington State Book Award. She is also the author of two chapbooks, Arab in Newsland, winner of the 2016 Two Sylvias Prize, and Letters from the Interior, finalist for the Jean Pedrick Chapbook Award. Her poems and essays have been published in journals including Michigan Quarterly Review, New England Review, Kenyon Review Online, Poetry Daily, and Poets.0rg’s Poem-A-Day. She is the recipient of the 2022 Lenore Goldstein Prize for Poetry and the 2020 Best of the Net for her essay “Muhammads in Gaza.” She is currently curating the series “Poems from Palestine” for the Baffler magazine. You can read more about her work at www.lenakhalaftuffaha.com
About the moderator:
Zeina Azzam is a Palestinian American poet, writer, editor, and community activist. She is currently the Poet Laureate of the City of Alexandria, Virginia. Her chapbook, Bayna Bayna, In-Between, was published in 2021; in it, Maryland Poet Laureate Grace Cavalieri writes that Zeina “creates a world of beauty and patience, even when ideals are shattered.” Her poetry also appears in Pleiades, Mizna, Sukoon, Passager, Gyroscope, Barzakh, Pensive Journal, Split This Rock, Streetlight Magazine, Cutleaf Journal, Bettering American Poetry, Making Mirrors: Writing/Righting by and for Refugees, Making Levantine Cuisine: Modern Foodways of the Eastern Mediterranean, Gaza Unsilenced, and elsewhere. Her educational background includes an M.A. in Arabic literature from Georgetown University and an M.A. in sociology from George Mason University. Learn more at https://www.pw.org/directory/writers/zeina_azzam. Photograph by Jeff Norman.
This event features live readings from two incredible Arab-American poets Priscilla Wathington and Lena Khalaf Tuffaha with the theme of REVOLUTION.
The readings will be followed by a discussion moderated by Zeina Azzam.
This event would not be possible without the assistance and support of Summer Farah and the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI).
About the poets:
Priscilla Wathington is a Palestinian American poet and editor who has worked with NGOs such as the Arab American Action Network, Defense for Children International – Palestine and the Norwegian Refugee Council. The poems in her debut chapbook, PAPER AND STICK (Tram Editions, 2021), "sharply probe the way language both limns and shadows atrocities," writes Deema Shehabi. Wathington's poems have appeared in Gulf Coast, Michigan Quarterly Review, Salamander, The Normal School, Mizna, Sukoon, and elsewhere. She holds a Master’s in Arab Studies from Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and sits on the board of the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI). Wathington lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Fine Arts at Warren Wilson College.
Lena Khalaf Tuffaha is a poet, essayist, and translator. Her first book of poems, Water & Salt, won the 2018 Washington State Book Award. She is also the author of two chapbooks, Arab in Newsland, winner of the 2016 Two Sylvias Prize, and Letters from the Interior, finalist for the Jean Pedrick Chapbook Award. Her poems and essays have been published in journals including Michigan Quarterly Review, New England Review, Kenyon Review Online, Poetry Daily, and Poets.0rg’s Poem-A-Day. She is the recipient of the 2022 Lenore Goldstein Prize for Poetry and the 2020 Best of the Net for her essay “Muhammads in Gaza.” She is currently curating the series “Poems from Palestine” for the Baffler magazine. You can read more about her work at www.lenakhalaftuffaha.com
About the moderator:
Zeina Azzam is a Palestinian American poet, writer, editor, and community activist. She is currently the Poet Laureate of the City of Alexandria, Virginia. Her chapbook, Bayna Bayna, In-Between, was published in 2021; in it, Maryland Poet Laureate Grace Cavalieri writes that Zeina “creates a world of beauty and patience, even when ideals are shattered.” Her poetry also appears in Pleiades, Mizna, Sukoon, Passager, Gyroscope, Barzakh, Pensive Journal, Split This Rock, Streetlight Magazine, Cutleaf Journal, Bettering American Poetry, Making Mirrors: Writing/Righting by and for Refugees, Making Levantine Cuisine: Modern Foodways of the Eastern Mediterranean, Gaza Unsilenced, and elsewhere. Her educational background includes an M.A. in Arabic literature from Georgetown University and an M.A. in sociology from George Mason University. Learn more at https://www.pw.org/directory/writers/zeina_azzam. Photograph by Jeff Norman.