Page Turners: Samah Sabawi

Join our summer book club!

There’s nothing better than relaxing during summer with a good book. And now we have your reading list sorted with some of this season’s hottest page turners.

Work your way through the biggest non-fiction releases on the Library’s summer reading list, get your questions ready and join host Astrid Edwards for a conversation with the author themselves.

This week, we’ll be joined by…Samah Sabawi.

Samah Sabawi is an award-winning author, playwright and poet. In Cactus Pear For My Beloved, Sabawi recounts her family’s story, starting 100 years ago in Palestine under British rule and ending in Redland Bay, Queensland. This is a story of love, open-heartedness and the enduring human spirit.

Hear directly from Sabawi as she explores how she went about writing such an intensely personal story, the themes she wanted to convey and more. Plus, get the chance to ask any of your burning questions.

Book your tickets now and get reading!

And don’t forget to grab from Readings State Library Victoria – present your tickets in store to receive 10% off the RRP.

Please note that this discount is only available at the Readings State Library Victoria store and is not valid in conjunction with any other promotions.

By registering to attend or purchasing a ticket to a State Library Victoria event, you agree to our Conditions of Entry.

Views expressed by the speakers do not necessarily represent the views of the State Library Victoria.

Auslan interpretation is available on request when booking up to two weeks prior to the event.

About Samah Sabawi

Samah Sabawi is an author, playwright and poet and a recipient of multiple awards both nationally and internationally. Her theatre credits include the critically acclaimed and award-winning plays Tales of a City by the Sea and THEM. In 2020 Samah received the prestigious Green Room Award for Best Writing in the independent theatre category, and was shortlisted for both the NSW and Victorian Premier's Literary Awards.

With Stephen Orlo, Samah edited the anthology Double Exposure: Plays of the Jewish and Palestinian Diasporas, winner of the Patrick O’Neill Award and she co-authored I Remember My Name: Poetry by Samah Sabawi, Ramzy Baroud and Jehan Bseiso, edited by Vacy Vlazna, winner of the Palestine Book Award. Samah received a Doctor of Philosophy from Victoria University for her thesis titled Inheriting Exile, transgenerational trauma and the Palestinian Australian Identity.

About Cactus Pear For My Beloved

The story of a family over the past 100 years, starting in Palestine under British rule and ending in Redland Bay in Queensland.

Samah Sabawi shares the story of her parents and many like them who were born as their parents were being forced to leave their homelands.

Filled with love for land, history, peoples it is more than anything else a family story and a love story told with enormous humanity and feeling. How the son (one of six), born at the height of the displacements to a disabled father and illiterate mother, a believer in peaceful resistance, became a leading poet and writer in Palestine, before being forced, with his own young family in tow, to flee and start a new life in Australia.

Host or Publisher State Library Victoria