Suad Amiry

Suad Amiry is one of the most sensitive, startling voices coming out of the occupied Palestinian territories – and with work that traverses memoir, architecture, cultural conservation and poetry – she’s also one of the most versatile. 

Now based between Ramallah and New York, Amiry studied architecture in Lebanon, Scotland and the US. She’s the founder of RIWAQ, the Centre for Architectural Conservation in Ramallah, a cultural heritage organisation tasked with documenting, protecting and rehabilitating historic centres. Unsurprisingly, then, themes of place and displacement are central to her work in her parallel career as a writer.

Perhaps Amiry’s most famous book, Sharon and My Mother-in-Law is a work of memoir based on her personal diaries and email correspondence – documenting the absurdities and anxieties of daily life under occupation with humour and poignancy. Her latest book, Golda Slept Here, paints a picture of the collective Palestinian experience through the telling of individual family histories. Interweaving poetry and prose, Amiry explores the meaning, and the loaded politics, of property and home in the Palestinian territories.

In this lecture, Amiry will discuss her work, her career and her hopes for the future in the West Bank.

Unfortunately, Suad Amiry is unable to travel to Australia for this event, which has been cancelled.