  Alia Malek
11:00 a.m.
Saville Theatre
A Country Called Amreeka: Arab Roots, American Stories chronicles the last forty-plus years of American history, told through the eyes of Arab Americans. It begins in 1963, before major federal legislative changes seismically transformed the course of American immigration forever. Each chapter describes an event in U.S. history — which may already be familiar — and invites us to live that moment in time in the skin of one Arab American. The chapters follow a timeline from 1963 to the present, and the characters live in every corner of this country. Alia Malek is an author and civil rights lawyer. Born in Baltimore to Syrian immigrant parents, she began her legal career as a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. After working in the legal field in the U.S., Lebanon, and the West Bank, Malek, who has degrees from Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities, earned her master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. Her reporting has appeared in Salon, The Columbia Journalism Review, and The New York Times. A Country Called Amreeka is her first book.
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Featuring:
Austin Straus is a poet and visual artist. He was host and producer of The Poetry Connexion on Pacifica Radio (1981-1996). He has worked for human rights with Amnesty International and other groups. He has taught English, art, and philosophy, and has conducted poetry workshops.
The author also creates paintings, collages and prints, but his specialty is unique artists’ books (in public and private collections including Mills College and the Athenaeum). His poetry books from Red Hen Press include Drunk with Light (2002) and Intensifications (2010). Strauss has been married to poet and writer Wanda Coleman for 30 years
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© San Diego City College International Book Fair.
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