Passports DC is an annual opportunity for visitors to experience the food, art, literature and culture of countries around the world through their embassies. The Embassy of Egypt is participating on May 3, along with many other non-European Union countries. Egypt's Cultural and Educational Bureau will offer food, musical performances and these literary events -
11:30 - 12:00
Karen Leggett Abouraya will read from her newest title Zamzam as well as Egyptian Lullaby by Zeena Pliska, before entertaining questions from the audience. Both books are winners of Children's Africana Book Awards.
1:30-2:30
Rajia Hassib and Pauline Kaldas will read and comment on their own books, followed by a conversation with Karen Leggett Abouraya and the audience.
Rajia Hassib was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt. She came to the U.S. at the age of 23 and now teaches English and literature at Marshall University in Charleston, West Virginia. A Pure Heart is Rajia's second book after In the Language of Miracles. Rich in depth and feeling, A Pure Heart is a brilliant portrait of two Muslim Egyptian sisters in the 21st century, and the decisions they make in work and love that determine their destines. As Rose is struggling to reconcile her identities as an Egyptian and as a new American, she investigates Gameela's devotion to her religion and her country.
Pauline Kaldas was born in Egypt and came to the United States with her parents at the age of 8. She has taught at Rhode Island School of Design, American University of Cairo and currently teaches English and creative writing at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. The Measure of Distance, published in 2023, is a family saga that begins when Salim, the eldest of three brothers, moves to Cairo at the beginning of the 20th century with dreams of opening his own bakery. His choice reverberates across generations, kicking off a series of migrations that shape the lives of his family and their descendants through the decades that follow.
11:30 - 12:00
Karen Leggett Abouraya will read from her newest title Zamzam as well as Egyptian Lullaby by Zeena Pliska, before entertaining questions from the audience. Both books are winners of Children's Africana Book Awards.
1:30-2:30
Rajia Hassib and Pauline Kaldas will read and comment on their own books, followed by a conversation with Karen Leggett Abouraya and the audience.
Rajia Hassib was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt. She came to the U.S. at the age of 23 and now teaches English and literature at Marshall University in Charleston, West Virginia. A Pure Heart is Rajia's second book after In the Language of Miracles. Rich in depth and feeling, A Pure Heart is a brilliant portrait of two Muslim Egyptian sisters in the 21st century, and the decisions they make in work and love that determine their destines. As Rose is struggling to reconcile her identities as an Egyptian and as a new American, she investigates Gameela's devotion to her religion and her country.
Pauline Kaldas was born in Egypt and came to the United States with her parents at the age of 8. She has taught at Rhode Island School of Design, American University of Cairo and currently teaches English and creative writing at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. The Measure of Distance, published in 2023, is a family saga that begins when Salim, the eldest of three brothers, moves to Cairo at the beginning of the 20th century with dreams of opening his own bakery. His choice reverberates across generations, kicking off a series of migrations that shape the lives of his family and their descendants through the decades that follow.