authors@Bookmarks: Elias Jahshan | Queer Arab Family

Join author and editor Elias Jahshan live in conversation followed by audience Q&A at Bookmarks Bookshop, Britain's leading socialist bookshop.

In Arab culture, tradition often dictates an individual’s role in a family, with personal desires subsumed in favour of unity. So, what happens when Queer Arabs challenge and re-imagine these expectations? This Queer Arab Family celebrates the beauty of chosen kin and the everyday acts of care and survival that bind Queer Arabs to each other. Here, ten LGBTQ+ writers from across the Arab world and diaspora redefine what family looks like.

Elias Jahshan (he/him) is a Palestinian-Lebanese journalist and writer. He is the editor of groundbreaking This Arab is Queer: An Anthology by LGBTQ+ Arab Writers (Saqi Books; 2022), which was a finalist in the 2023 Lambda Literary Awards in the USA, shortlisted for the 2023 Bread & Roses Award in the UK, and has been translated into Italian and French.