The Hungering Years Book Launch: A Poetry Reading & Community Gathering

✦ Host Publications is thrilled to celebrate Summer Farah’s debut poetry collection at Alienated Majesty Books. Join us for a festive evening featuring a live musical performance by Fuvk, poetry readings by Summer Farah and Sara Bawany, and a moderated panel discussion on the themes of Etel Adnan, obsession, fandom, and what it means to look for Palestine. Giveaways, refreshments, and poetic ecstasy ensue! Hosted by Host Publications editors Annar Veröld-Miranda & Claire Bowman!

“I am always looking for Palestine, and yes, I am always looking for love,” these poems croon, holding so much of the world even as they trace an inheritance of displacement. The Hungering Years conjures startling landscapes where we may also experience what it is to be consumed by obsession, echoing with songs by Mitski, iconic scenes from Supernatural, and the sound of the Mediterranean Sea. But as Lena Khalaf Tuffaha writes in her introduction, Farah’s repetitions “are more than echo. They are a vernacular of this unspeakable era,” anchored in “questions that keep us reaching toward life,” and questions toward each other.

✦ Host Publications is an award-winning, women-led independent publisher located in Austin, Texas. Devoted to our mission to elevate historically marginalized writers, Host Publications publishes radical poetry and fiction by emerging LGBTQ+, BIPOC, intersectional feminist, and immigrant voices. 

✦ Free & open to all lovers of literature.✦ Health and safety note: masks are required and will be provided.

✦✦✦ Artist Bios✦✦✦

is a Palestinian American writer, editor, and zine-maker from California. She is the author of I could die today and live again (Game Over Books, 2024) and The Hungering Years (Host Publications, 2026). A member of the Radius of Arab American Writers and the National Book Critics Circle, she is calling on you to recommit yourself to the liberation of the Palestinian people each day.

is an award-winning poet, clinical social worker, and MFA Poetry student at Texas State University. She is the author of two poetry books: (w)holehearted: a collection of poetry and prose in 2018, and Quarter Life Crisis. She is the Managing Editor at Porter House Review and is a lead writing instructor at House of Amal, a school for Muslim writers. You can learn more about her work at www.sarabawany.com.

is the bedroom-pop project of Austin-based artist Shirley Zhu.

is a poet and book critic. Her debut poetry collection, Girl’s Guide to Leaving  (University of Wisconsin Press 2022), was awarded Texas Institute of Letters' John A. Robert Johnson Award for a First Book of Poetry and the Writers' League of Texas Book Award for Poetry. She is an associate with Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies. 

Info: Sara Bawany is an award-winning poet, clinical social worker, and MFA Poetry student at Texas State University. She is the author of two poetry books: (w)holehearted: a collection of poetry and prose in 2018, and Quarter Life Crisis. She is the Managing Editor at Porter House Review and is a lead writing instructor at House of Amal, a school for Muslim writers. You can learn more about her work at www.sarabawany.com.

Info: Fuvk is the bedroom-pop project of Austin-based artist Shirley Zhu.

Info: Summer Farah is a Palestinian American writer, editor, and zine-maker from California. She is the author of I could die today and live again (Game Over Books, 2024) and The Hungering Years (Host Publications, 2026). A member of the Radius of Arab American Writers and the National Book Critics Circle, she is calling on you to recommit yourself to the liberation of the Palestinian people each day.

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