Book Discussion: Mai Serhan & Youssef Rakha: I Can Imagine It for Us

This lecture will be hosted on Thursday, 6 November 2025 at 6:00 pm.

Join us for a book discussion of I Can Imagine It for Us: A Palestinian Daughter’s Memoir by Mai Serhan, a deeply personal and lyrical reflection on memory, belonging, and the landscapes that shape us.

In this special event, award-winning author Mai Serhan will be in conversation with Youssef Rakha, acclaimed novelist and journalist, to explore the book’s themes of identity, language, and home, as well as the creative process behind Serhan’s evocative prose.

A Q&A session will follow the discussion.

About the Speakers

Mai Serhan is a Palestinian writer who grew up in Egypt. She is the author of CAIRO: the undelivered letters, winner of the 2022 Center for Book Arts Poetry Award, and I Have Never Been to the Place Where I am From, But I Will Imagine It For Us, a finalist for the 2022 Narratively Memoir Prize. She holds an MSt in creative writing from Oxford University, and has studied at NYU and AUC. She lives in Cairo.

Youssef Rakha is an Egyptian novelist, poet and essayist, born in 1976, who writes in both Arabic and English, thinking about Egypt, Arabs, and Islam. He is the author of the novel The Crocodiles (Seven Stories Press) and the essay Barra and Zaman (Palgrave), among many other books. Born and raised in Cairo, where he still lives, he graduated from Hull University, England, in 1998. He has worked as a cultural journalist, literary translator, and creative writing coach since then. His first novel to be written in English, The Dissenters, is forthcoming with Graywolf Press in 2025.

Attention!

The lecture starts at 6 pm. The number of seats is limited and we work on a first-come, first-served basis. We open our doors at 5:30 and close them at 6:15 or earlier in case the lecture room reaches its full capacity.