Award-winning author to visit 'Berg Dec. 6

Lena Mahmoud, author of the award-winning “Amreekiya,” will be on campus on Friday, December 6, for a pair of events in this semester’s Jean Warren Gekler Writer’s Series, hosted by the School of Humanities, Education & the Arts.

At 10 a.m., Lena will present a writing workshop in Pfleiderer. Later in the day, at 3 p.m., she will be reading from “Amreekiya” in Herbster Chapel. Both events are open to everyone.

According to a review by author Susan Muaddi Darraj, “Amreekiya” is an intimate portrayal of an early Arab American marriage, filled with passion, loss and ultimately, forgiveness. “Readers will be moved by the fierce but fragile Isra, who refuses to be defined by her family, her husband and her society,” she wrote.

Lena’s debut novel is the winner of an Arab American Book Award, a finalist for the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize and one of Foreword’s “Four Phenomenal Debut Novels.” Lena’s work has appeared or will appear in Fifth Wednesday, Sukoon, A Gathering Together and The Offing, among others. She has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes for her story, “Al Walad,” and her essay, “The Psyche of a Palestinian-American Writer.”

The Writer’s Series is made possible by The Jean Warren Gekler English Endowment Fund and named in her honor. A 1980 Heidelberg alumna, Gekler is the senior associate director of the MBA Career Management Program in the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. She created the endowment for the English Department to benefit and enrich the educational experience of English majors, all Heidelberg students and the community.

For additional information, contact Dr. Lucy Biederman at lbiederma@heidelberg.edu.