Join us for an author evening with Shahd Alshammari to discuss her book, Head Above Water: Reflections on Illness – available to purchase from the IHRC Bookshop.
WHEN: Thursday, 23 February, 2023, 6.30pm (GMT)
WHERE: online only – watch live on YouTube, Facebook and IHRC TV
About the book:
Head Above Water takes us into a space of intimate conversations on illness and society’s stigmatization of disabled bodies. We are invited in to ask the big questions about life, loss, and the place of the other. The narrative builds a bridge that reminds us of our common humanity and weaves the threads that tie us all together. Through conversations about women’s identities, bodies, and our journeys through life, we arrive at a politics of love, survival, and hope.
About the author:
Shahd Alshammari is the author of the recently published book Head Above Water: Reflections on Illness (Neem Tree Press). She holds a Ph.D.in English Literature from the University of Kent (United Kingdom). Today, she is associate professor of literature at Gulf University for Science and Technology (Kuwait). Alshammari specializes in illness narratives and Disability Studies, and has also served as a judge for various literary prizes in the Gulf region and beyond. Her work, some of which can be found on her website, www.shahdalshammari.com, has appeared in Life Writing, Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, and other publications. Her collection of stories Notes on the Flesh (2017, Faraxa Press) is being translated into Maltese. The collection deals with disability and women’s issues in the Middle East.
