Hawthornden Brooklyn in Conversation: Zaina Arafat & Helen Betya Rubinstein

Hawthornden Brooklyn presents Zaina Arafat and Helen Betya Rubinstein discussing their recently published books.
About this Event

Hawthornden writers-in-residence and longtime friends Zaina Arafat and Helen Betya Rubinstein will discuss their recently published essay collections with each other. Zaina's memoir-in-essays, Our Arab: On Longing Belonging and Hope, is about the experience of being Palestinian in the diaspora. Helen's collection, Feels Like Trouble: Provocations on Writing, Teaching & Power, asks how we might reorient common practices of the writing and publishing world away from harm.

Taylor & Co. Books will have books available for sale.

Doors open at 6:30 PM. Space is limited. Exact location will be shared via a reminder email two days before the event. You will only receive this email if you RSVP.

If you will need accessible seating, or have any other questions, please email [email protected]. You can learn more about Hawthornden Brooklyn here.

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Zaina Arafat is the author of the novel You Exist Too Much, which won a 2021 Lambda Literary Award and was named Roxane Gay’s favorite book of the year. Zaina’s writing has appeared in numerous publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times, New York Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, Granta, The Believer, Vice and BuzzFeed. She writes about diasporic and immigrant communities across a realm of subject areas, including politics, culture, and art. Zaina teaches at Barnard College and The School of the New York Times. In recognition of her service through writing and teaching to both migrant and LGBTQ communities, she was awarded the Arab Women/Migrants from the Middle East fellowship at Jack Jones Literary Arts and named a Champion of Pride by The Advocate. She was a writer-in-residence at Casa Ecco in Summer 2026, and Our Arab is her most recent book

Helen Betya Rubinstein is the author of The Case Against Rubinstein, forthcoming in 2027. Her essays and fiction have appeared in Gulf Coast, The Kenyon Review, and frequently in Literary Hub and Jewish Currents, where she is a contributing writer. She teaches at The New School and works as a coach for other writers and scholars. Feels Like Trouble: Provocations on Writing, Teaching, & Power is her most recent book. She is currently a writer-in-residence at Hawthornden Brooklyn.