Zaina Arafat — Our Arab: On Longing, Belonging, and Hope - with Stephanie Merry — at Union Market

Zaina Arafat presents *Our Arab: On Longing, Belonging, and Hope*, her essay collection about Palestinian identity, diaspora, family, and the search for home. Moving between Nablus, the Appalachian Mountains, Amman, and Manhattan, the book considers the longing to return to a homeland that can feel distant and increasingly unreachable, as well as the challenges of raising children in the diaspora amid censorship, violence, and erasure.

Arafat, author of the Lambda Literary Award-winning novel *You Exist Too Much*, will discuss the book with Stephanie Merry, a features editor at *The Washington Post*. The conversation explores the complexities of Palestinian life today through themes of society, identity, belonging, loss, pride, anger, hope, and radical compassion.

When: Thursday, October 29, 2026, at 7:00 p.m.

Venue: Politics and Prose at Union Market, 1324 4th Street NE, Washington, DC 20002.

Featured author: Zaina Arafat is the author of *Our Arab: On Longing, Belonging, and Hope* and *You Exist Too Much*. Her writing has appeared in publications including *The New York Times*, *The New Yorker*, *New York Magazine*, *Granta*, *Harper’s Bazaar*, *The Believer*, *Vice*, and *BuzzFeed*. She teaches writing at Barnard College and lives with her family in New York.

In conversation: Stephanie Merry is a features editor at *The Washington Post*, where she has worked since 2008. She previously served as deputy editor of the newspaper’s Book World and wrote about movies, television, and other cultural subjects.

Book: *Our Arab: On Longing, Belonging, and Hope* is a hardcover published by Zaina Arafat. The event listing describes it as a poignant essay collection about living in diaspora and what it means to be Palestinian today.

Tickets: Free admission with first-come, first-served seating.

Accessibility: To request accommodations or ask about accessibility, email events@politics-prose.com, ideally at least one week before the event. Requests will be considered up until the event.

Related book price: The event-related hardcover is listed at $28.00, with a publication date of September 29, 2026 and ISBN 9780316584685.