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Friday, 7 January 2011

Central Oregon Coast Event Features Arab American Novelists

Published 11/15/2010

(Newport, Oregon) - Writers on the Edge is hosting an appearance by novelists Naseem Rakha and Kazim Ali on November 20, 2010 at 7 p.m. at the Visual Arts Center in Nye Beach (777 NW Beach Drive, across from the Nye Beach Turnaround). General admission is $5 at the door, students always admitted free. Light refreshments will be available. An open mic follows event.

Rakha focuses on the emotions and ideals of forgiveness, and Ali follows the lives of five New Yorkers as the twin towers crumble. Naseem Rakha writes in The Crying Tree of a mother's forgiveness of the man who murdered her son, an almost unimaginable act of grace, while Kazim Ali explores, in the Disappearance of Seth, the mystery of why several characters of both Muslim and non-Muslim background, American and non-American, disappear in New York City on the day of 911. Their work has enthralled readers across the nation.

Rakha has long studied forgiveness, examining the court system with its raw truth of seemingly unforgivable crimes. She reveals the intense emotions on the outer edges of the criminal experience, including stories of prisoners on death row found to be innocent. In "The Crying Tree" she presents the nearly unimaginable whys and hows of absolute forgiveness. Ms. Rakha received the20210 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award for this first novel.

Kazim Ali, a native of England, holds several degrees from New York colleges. He is an assistant professor of creative writing at Oberlin College and a founding editor of Nightboat Books. Ali is the author of three books of poetry,including The Far Mosque, which was the winner of the Alice James Books New England/New York Award, and two novels, "Quinn's Passage" and "Disappearance of Seth." His work has been described as lyric, poetic, and compelling.

For future event dates and details go to http://writersontheedge.org/calendar/2011cal.html.

Writers On The Edge is supported by admission dollars, individual donations, and a grant from the Oregon Cultural Trust, investing in Oregon's arts, humanities and heritage, and the Lincoln County Cultural Coalition. All donations to Writers On The Edge are gratefully appreciated and fully tax-deductible. Press Release written by Patsy Brookshire.

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