Featuring readings from George Abraham and E. Hughes, plus a brief open mic.

Donations to this event will go to The Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA).

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Featuring:

George Abraham (they/هو) is a Palestinian American poet, essayist, critic, performance artist. They are the author of When the Arab Apocalypse Comes to America (Haymarket, 2026) and Birthright (Button Poetry, 2020), which won the Arab American Book Award and was a Lambda Literary Award finalist. They are the executive editor of Mizna, and co-editor of HEAVEN LOOKS LIKE US: Palestinian Poetry (Haymarket, 2025). They are a graduate of Northwestern’s Litowitz MFA+MA program, and teach at Amherst College as a Writer-in-Residence.

E. Hughes is the author of the poetry collection Ankle-Deep in Pacific Water (Haymarket Books 2024). They received their MFA in poetry and MA in English Literature from the Litowitz Creative Writing Program at Northwestern University. Their poems have been published or are forthcoming in Guernica Magazine, Indiana Review, Gulf Coast Magazine, Colorado Review, and The Rumpus—among others. Hughes is Cave Canem fellow and a 2025 Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, Library Laureate. They have been for the 92Y Discovery Contest and longlisted for the Granum Fellowship Prize. Currently, Hughes is a PhD student in Philosophy at Emory University, where they study Continental Philosophy.

Christopher Soto is an writer based in Los Angeles, California. Soto studied poetry at New York University and edited the anthology Nepantla: An Anthology for Queer Poets of Color (Nightboat Books). Soto has written for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the Nation, the Guardian, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. Their first collection of poetry Diaries of a Terrorist, was published originally by Copper Canyon Press in 2022. It has been reprinted in Spanish by Haymarket Books in 2025.

Christopher Soto es un escritor radicado en Los Angeles, California. Estudi. poesia en New York University y es el compilador de la antología Nepantla: An Anthology for Queer Poets of Color (Nightboat Books). Escribe para New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The Guardian y Los Angeles Review of Books, entre otros. Su primera colección de poesía, Diarios de un terrorista, fue publicada originalmente por Copper Canyon Press en 2022.