When Home Isn’t a Place: Writing in an Unanchored Age with Omar El Akkad

Please join us Nov 3 for this Global Studies Signature Lecture. Omar El Akkad is an award-winning novelist and journalist. In 2021, he received Canada’s most prestigious literary award, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, for What Strange Paradise. His first novel American War (2017) was also widely acclaimed. What Strange Paradise is the story of a Syrian boy whose family flees the war, seeking refuge first in Egypt and then in Europe. The boy’s perilous journey represents the plight of many Arab, Asian, and African refugees.