Sami Hermez and Sireen Sawalha Featuring Amani Haydar

In 1967, Sireen Sawalha’s mother, with her young children, walked back to Palestine against the traffic of exile. Winner of an Independent Book Publisher's Silver Medal Award, My Brother, My Land is the story of Sireen’s family in the decades that followed and their lives in the Palestinian village of Kufr Ra'i.

From Sireen’s early life growing up in the shadow of the '67 War and her family’s work as farmers caring for their land, to the involvement of her brother Iyad in armed resistance in the First and Second Intifada, Sami Hermez, with Sireen Sawalha, crafts a rich story of intertwining voices, mixing genres of oral history, memoir, and creative nonfiction.

In celebration of this timely and critically acclaimed new book, multi-award-winning author of The Mother Wound, Amani Haydar, will warmly introduce Australian readers to our special guests, Sami Hermez and Sireen Sawalha.  

Proudly presented by Better Read Than Dead in partnership with Sweatshop Literacy Movement.

Our event space is wheelchair accessible via a stair lift. Please contact events@betterread.com.au with any additional access requirements and/or questions.

Sireen Sawalha, born in the small village of Kufr Rai in Jenin, Palestine, comes from a family deeply connected to the region’s rich history. She moved to the US in 1990 and completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Rider University. Recognised by Cornell University for her outstanding contributions to education in 2022, Sireen serves as a social studies teacher in New Jersey. Beyond academia, she is a passionate chef and compelling storyteller, sharing her family’s experiences under occupation. Sireen raises awareness about Palestinian culture and actively contributes to the struggle for Palestinian freedom. My Brother, My Land is the story of her family.

Sami Hermez, PhD, is the director of the Liberal Arts Program and associate professor of anthropology at Northwestern University in Qatar. He obtained his doctorate degree from the Department of Anthropology at Princeton University. He is the author of War is Coming: Between Past and Future Violence in Lebanon (UPenn 2017), which focuses on the everyday life of political violence in Lebanon and how people recollect and anticipate this violence, and My Brother, My Land: A Story from Palestine (Stanford 2024), which tells the story of a Palestinian family resisting ongoing Israeli settler colonialism. His broader research concerns include the study of social movements, the state, the future, memory, violence, and critical security in the Arab World.

Amani Haydar is an award-winning writer, visual artist, lawyer and advocate for women’s health and safety based in Western Sydney. Amani’s debut memoir, The Mother Wound, has been the recipient of multiple accolades, including the 2022 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Non-fiction. Amani was also the recipient of the 2021 UTS Faculty of Law Alumni Award, and she was named Local Woman of the Year for Bankstown at the 2020 NSW Premier’s Woman of the Year Awards in recognition of her advocacy against domestic violence. As a distinguished visual artist, Amani is also a former Archibald Prize finalist.