Literary (Un)belongings Suad Aldarra in conversation with Rita Sakr

In Partnership with Literature Ireland

Syrian-Irish writer Suad Aldarra’s memoir I Don’t Want to Talk About Home (Doubleday 2022), fits uneasily across Syrian non-fiction, Irish literary production, and literatures of refuge. Suad and Rita Sakr will be in conversation exploring these intersections – the challenges and opportunities they present for local and international readership, translation and creativity. Moving from Damascus and Dublin in literature, to a (former) data scientist’s discoveries about the publishing world, the conversation will cross continents, languages and identities.

Photo by: Brid O Donovan

Suad Aldarra is a Syrian-Irish writer and data scientist based in Dublin. She was selected as the Common Currency writer in residence for Cuirt International Festival and English/Irish PEN in 2021 and was awarded the Art Councils of Ireland English Literature bursary. Her debut memoir, I Don’t Want to Talk About Home, was published by Penguin in July 2022 and was shortlisted for An Post Irish Biography of the Year Award.

Lebanese-born Rita Sakr is Assistant Professor in postcolonial and global literatures at Maynooth University. Among various publications, she is the author of two monographs, co-editor of several published and forthcoming volumes, co-director/co-producer of a documentary film on Beirut, and author of many articles and chapters especially engaging with migration, Arab literary and cultural production, decoloniality and the environmental humanities. Co-chair of MU Sanctuary and co-founder of the Irish Network for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, Rita teaches, researches and serves on public engagement initiatives and funded research projects focused particularly on forced displacement. She is a previous judge of the Dublin Literary Award and currently a member of the jury of the Rooney prize for Irish Literature.