Podcast appearances and mentions of Omar Sakr

Omar Sakr talks to Cheryl about resistance, censorship, and the power of poetry to bring clarity, connection, and hope in turbulent times. His latest work in collaboration with illustrator Safdar Ahmed, The Nightmare Sequence, is out now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Many candidates and community members participated in the SBS Election Exchange on Thursday, 24 April 2025, in Sydney's Parramatta. Listen to our conversation with candidates Tu Le, Sally Sitou, Omar Sakr, Joanna Somerville, Ahmed Ouf, Maa Malini, and the Nepali community members present at the event. SBS Nepali also spoke to Binod Paudel, the Nepali-speaking candidate for Macarthur. - सङ्घीय निर्वाचनको मिति नजिकिँदै जाँदा अगिल्लो सप्ताह एसबीएसले मेलबर्न र सिड्नीमा ‘इलेक्सन एक्सचेञ्ज' आयोजना गरेको थियो। सिड्नीको पारामाटामा भएको उक्त अन्तर्क्रियात्मक कार्यक्रममा सहभागी भएका उम्मेदवारहरू टु ले, स्याली सिटु, ओमर सकर, जोआना सोमरभिल, अहमद ओफ र मा मालिनी तथा नेपाली समुदायका सदस्यहरूका साथै मकार्थर निर्वाचन क्षेत्रका नेपालीभाषी उम्मेदवार विनोद पौडेलसँग एसबीएस नेपालीले गरेको कुराकानी सुन्नुहोस्।

OMAR SAKR: POETRY IN THE GENOCIDEOmar Sakr is a poet and writer born in Western Sydney to Lebanese and Turkish Muslim migrants. He is an acclaimed, award-winning author and the first Arab-Australian Muslim to win the Prime Minister's Literary Award. He is also - like the rest of the world - bearing witness to genocide. So where does art and poetry find its place amidst a horrifying and ongoing massacre? And what does it cost activists to keep showing up when staying silent is not an option?Instagram (IG @OmarSakrPoet)Australia Palestine Advocacy Network Amnesty International: Unstoppable Melbourne Activist Legal SupportNFP Law - campaigns or protestsMarieke Hardy Is Going To Die is a podcast made by Marieke Hardy (IG @marieke_hardy).You can follow at IG @GoingToDiePodMusic by Lord Fascinator (IG @lordfascinator)Produced by Darren Scarce (IG @Dazz26)Video edits by Andy Nedelkovski (IG @AndyNeds)Artwork by Lauren Egan (IG @heylaurenegan)Photography by Eamon Leggett (IG @anxietyoptions)With thanks to Amelia Chappelow (IG @ameliachappelow)Camilla McKewen (IG @CamillaLucyLucy)and Rhys Graham (IG @RhysJGraham)Drop an email to mariekehardyisgoingtodie@gmail.comWhilst acknowledging the privilege that comes with having the space to discuss death and mortality, we want to also recognise that discussing these topics can raise some wounds. Should you wish to seek extra support, please consider the following resources:https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/online-grief-support-groupshttps://www.grief.org.au/ga/ga/Support/Support_Groups.aspxhttps://www.headspace.com/meditation/griefhttps://griefline.org.au/get-help/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Author Omar Sakr is running for Blaxland in western Sydney for the Greens at the federal election.  He joins us for an interview.

Third up in our series of bonus episodes interviewing Greens candidates for the upcoming federal election, Tom meets Omar Sakr, poet, novelist, essayist, and Greens candidate for Blaxland in NSW! Is the seat of Paul Keating and now Jason Clare, finally ready to end its status as a Labor stronghold? Why don’t the major parties support Muslim voices and stand up for the people in Gaza? And what happened after he wrote a poem reflecting on ‘Bluey in the genocide’ and caught the interest of News Corp? ---------- These bonus election episodes can only exist because of our wonderful Patreon subscriber’s support. Subscribe for $3/month to get access to our fortnightly subscriber-only full episode, and unlock our complete library of over SIXTY past bonus episodes. https://www.patreon.com/SeriousDangerAU ---------- Call to action - Omar Sakr for Blaxland - for upcoming events, donate or volunteer at https://www.instagram.com/greensforblaxland/ https://www.instagram.com/omarsakrpoet/ There’s an election coming! https://greens.org.au/events Check out the platform - https://greens.org.au/platform Serious Danger merch - https://seriousdanger.bigcartel.com/ Produced by Michael Griffin https://www.instagram.com/mikeskillz Follow us on https://twitter.com/SeriousDangerAU https://www.instagram.com/seriousdangerau https://www.tiktok.com/@seriousdangerauSupport the show: http://patreon.com/seriousdangerauSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 This week on Monday breakfast: Beginning with news headlines - A beautiful spoken word poem recited at this week's Free Palestine Rally, by an Australian-born Sudanese community member here in naarm, followed by a speech by humanitarian professional Sara Sinada 'Context in a Broken Duplex' Poem by Omar Sakr read live on air. - Ethnographer and co-producer of documentary 'The Conspiracists', Noelle Cook on 'Yeah Nah Pasaran!' [pron: Pass-Are-Arn], discussing women in the far right in the US.  Cam and Andy sat down with ethnographer Noelle Cook to discuss conspiracists and women of the far-right in the US. We'll now listen to an excerpt of this interview, where Noelle begins with her observations on how conspiracism has infected US politics, and in particular the infamous storming of The Capitol on January 6th 2021, which initiated her interest into this particular area of research. - Interview Excerpt: Luke Espiritu (Senate Candidate in upcoming Filipino elections) speaking with Jiselle Hanna on Asia Pacific Currents More news headline + Community Event annoucements  - Matieu, Maori nurse with the ANMF Nurses and Midwives for Palestine, talking about some new terminology, a statement from healthcare workers for Palestine, which was also ready by nurses in Ireland." Songs:Lion Dance, HiroshimaCremisan, Alabaster De Plume & Laith AlbandakI'm Every Sparkly Woman, Ana Roxanne

BBC Contains Strong Language 2024 took place in Sydney Australia in partnership with Red Room Poetry and ABC Australia . This special edition of The Verb was recorded in State Library of New South Wales n front of a audience as part of the festival. With guests Eileen Chong the first Asian Australian poet to be on the school syllabus, who came to Australia from Singapore in 2007. Singer songwriter Paul Kelly - described as the Laureate of Australia - whose latest project sets the work of poets as varied as Shakespeare and Les Murray to music . Omar Sakr - the son of Turkish and Lebanesemigrants whose collection The Lost Arabs won the prestigious Prime Ministers Literary Award . Ali Cobby Eckermann - a First Nation poet who only met her birth mother as an adult. She, her mother and grandmother were all stolen , tricked or adopted away from their families . Her poetry talks powerfully about this personal and national story .Recorded with an acknowledgement of the Gadigal people the traditional custodians of the land where this edition of The Verb took place Produced by Susan Roberts

Acknowledgement of Country//Headlines//Amelia Leavesley, University of MelbourneAmelia Leavesley is a Research Fellow in Urban Sustainability at the Melbourne Centre for Cities. Her research focuses on urban climate policy and governance, sustainability transitions and local implementation of global sustainability frameworks. She's here to talk about her last article which unpacked how understanding ‘tobacco tactics' can help fight the global plastic waste crisis, because the reality is plastic production is growing faster than we can recycle it.//Ariel Slamet Ries,  Alison Evans, and Jinghua Qian We play a speech from this past Sunday's Free Palestine Rally,  from outside the State Library Vic. Ariel Slamet Ries (Illustrator and Author), Alison Evans (Author), and Jinghua Qian (Writer and Critic), three writers who, along with Omar Sakr, had their Teen Bootcamp writing workshops terminated earlier this year by SLV. They speak about the hypocrisy of 'cultural safety', precarious employment and political censorship of artists and writers, and taking back our public institutions and our voices!// Stop LAPD Spying Coalition - Part 2 We will hear Part 2 of an interview Priya did last month with Stop LAPD Spying Coalition's Hamid Khan and Matyos Kidane. This week's excerpt includes a dicussion of the group's abolitionist ethos and structural analysis of violence, as well as the importance of demystifying predictive and data-driven policing techniques. Listen back to the first part of our conversation and all our past shows at 3cr.org.au/thursday-breakfast. // Abdullah Al Zubaer EvanAbdullah Al Zubaer Evan joins us to talk the recent student-led mass protests in Bangladesh, which while met with violent state repression have led to the overthrow of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The situation continues to develop with tensions over the establishment of a genuinely democratic successor government. Evan is a PhD student at RMIT University investigating the implication of citizenship rights for ethnic minority Biharis in Bangladesh. // LIVE - RAHU's 2024 Homelessness Week protest Housing Crisis Survival Expo, coordinated by the Renters and Housing Union's North branch and established on the nature strip in the middle of St Georges Road in Preston early this week.//    

With Mike Ladd | Omar Sakr is an award-winning poet and novelist. His latest collection, Non-Essential Work, confronts issues of gender, race and identity. He explores these concerns with Mike Ladd. Event details: Thu 07 Mar, 2:30pm

This week, new host Cindy Juyoung Ok speaks with Omar Sakr, who joins us from Sydney, Australia. Sakr tends to the in between, writing prose and poetry, and moving between poetic and political urges, and through queerness and diasporic experience. On this episode, we spend time with a series from Sakr's newest collection, Non-Essential Work (UQP, 2023). The series, “On Finding the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in Dante's Inferno,” reflects on and challenges Canto XXVIII, in which Dante comes upon the Prophet in the eighth level of hell. You can read three poems from the series in the June 2023 issue of Poetry. We also continue our new segment, in which guests answer a question from the void, and the episode ends with a surprise visitor. 

Ghassan Hage and Randa Abdel-Fattah reflect on the publication of 'The Racial Politics of Australian Multiculturalism' - a combined work celebrating the 25th anniversary of Ghassan's 'White Nation: Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society' and the 20th anniversary of his 'Against Paranoid Nationalism: Searching for Hope in a Shrinking Society'. Ghassan is internationally renowned for his research on the intersection of racism, nationalism and colonialism. He is a professor of anthropology and social theory at the University of Melbourne and a senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Social Anthropology in Germany. His most recent sole-authored books include 'Alter-Politics: Critical Anthropology and the Radical Imagination', 'Is Racism an Environmental Threat?' and 'The Diasporic Condition: Ethnographic Explorations of the Lebanese in the World'. Randa has appeared on The Garret before 'Coming of Age in the War on Terror', which was was shortlisted for the Stella Prize, the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards and the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. She is a Future Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Macquarie University. In this interview, Astrid quotes Omar Sakr reflecting on the influence Ghassan has had on his poetry, and you can listen to Omar's interview here. Read the transcript for this interview here.  About The Garret: Writers and the publishing industry Follow The Garret on Twitter and Instagram, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Omar Sakr is the author of three poetry collections, Non-Essential Work (2023), The Lost Arabs (2019), These Wild Houses (2017). His first novel, Son of Sin (2022) was shortlisted for the Indie Book Awards. Omar performs 'Iris', a poem from his latest collection, at the 6:30 mark. The Lost Arabs won the 2020 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Award, the John Bray Poetry Award, the Judith Wright Calanthe Award, and the Colin Roderick Award. Omar is a widely published essayist and editor whose work has been translated into Arabic and Spanish. Omar last appeared on The Garret in 2002 after Son of Sin was published. Listen here. Read the transcript for this interview here.  About The Garret: Writers and the publishing industry Follow The Garret on Twitter and Instagram, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Omar shares his poems.Omar Sakr is the author of two acclaimed poetry collections, These Wild Houses and The Lost Arabs, which won the 2020 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry. His debut novel, Son of Sin, is out now.Queerstories an award-winning LGBTQI+ storytelling project directed by Maeve Marsden, with regular events around Australia. For more information, visit www.queerstories.com.au and follow Queerstories on Facebook.The Queerstories book is published by Hachette Australia, and can be purchased from your favourite independent bookseller or on Booktopia.To support Queerstories, become a patron at www.patreon.com/ladysingsitbetter Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Synopsis:Experiencing a “high risk” pregnancy and birth while growing a new life during the pandemic was transformative for Wiradjuri writer and producer Hannah Donnelly, and Arab-Turkish partner, writer Omar Sakr. We talk about queering birth, the administrative load of pregnancy, and the need for collective infrastructure to improve birthing experiences and outcomes for families and communities.Notes:HannahBlacklight: Ten Years of First Nations Storytelling edited by Hannah DonnellyArts and Cultural Exchange (ACE)Westmead Dragonfly MidwiferyOmarNon-Essential Work by Omar SakrShelf Reflection: Omar SakrThree poems by Omar SakrMusic:Music in this episode includes ‘Dream Drone' by Yigit Atilla, and ‘ZEN' by All Bets Off used under an Audio Standard Licence from Adobe Stock.Birthing and Justice is written and produced by Dr Ruth De Souza on the traditional and unceded lands of the Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nations. Sound editing by Olivia Smith.

The authors of two of 2022's most anticipated releases, Arab-Australian writers Omar Sakr and George Haddad, come together to discuss their debut novels about family, history and identity, and Western Sydney. Omar's Son of Sin is a story of growing up queer and Muslim that illuminates the bonds that bind families, and how they can break. George's unflinching Losing Face reflects Australian identity back to readers, while testing the notion that facing consequences makes us better people. They speak with Sarah Malik. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and follow our channel. Sydney Writers' Festival podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tell Me What To Read pairs with The First Time Podcast, as Ben Hunter, Kate Mildenhall and Katherine Collette sit down to discuss their favourite debut books of 2022!  The First Time Podcast: https://thefirsttimepodcast.com/   EXPLORE BOOKS MENTIONED Son of Sin by Omar Sakr | https://bit.ly/3HsBEsq Only a Monster by Vanessa Len | https://bit.ly/3o5tw9p Sunbathing by Isobel Beech | https://bit.ly/3fHlaDt Everything Feels Like the End of the World by Else Fitzgerald | https://bit.ly/3SEJDbh Found, Wanting by Natasha Sholl | https://bit.ly/3CuFrVM Every Version of You by Grace Chan | https://bit.ly/3ryS3F3 The Whitewash by Siang Lu | https://bit.ly/3ruMcAE The Natural History of Love by Caroline Petit | https://bit.ly/38m6pCp The Furies by Mandy Beaumont | https://bit.ly/3Hg4Xxc All That's Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien | https://bit.ly/3RtMDFX Wake by Shelley Burr | https://bit.ly/3sJr1eE Denizen by James McKenzie Watson | https://bit.ly/3rt7wXf Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor | https://bit.ly/3JDSy7S The Torrent by Dinuka McKenzie | https://bit.ly/3rTJ2Gr Banjawarn by Josh Kemp | https://bit.ly/3uXKQRC Show Me Where it Hurts by Kylie Maslen | https://bit.ly/3EvKuXN Ruth & Pen by Emilie Pine | https://bit.ly/3EvKHKz Hovering by Rhett Davis | https://bit.ly/3oYXI6G Gemini Falls by Sean Wilson | https://bit.ly/3RykZI2 The Upwelling by Lystra Rose | https://bit.ly/3SS3un1   WANT TO KNOW MORE? Follow The First Time | Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefirsttimepod/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/thefirsttimepod Follow Kate Mildenhall | Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kmildenhall/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/katemildenhall/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katemildenhallwriter/ Website: https://katemildenhall.com/ Follow Katherine Collette | Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katherinecollettewriter/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kecollette Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katherinecollettewriter/ Website: https://www.katherinecollette.com/   ENJOY THIS EPISODE? Subscribe to YouTube | https://bit.ly/3GLDvJl Check out our Editorial | https://bit.ly/3myzL1U Twitter | https://twitter.com/booktopia Facebook Group | https://www.facebook.com/groups/booktopiatellmewhattoread    CREDITS  Guests: Kate Mildenhall, Katharine Collette & Ben Hunter Producer: Nick Wasiliev Published on: 6 October 2022 Season: 2 Episode: 68 © 2022 BooktopiaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"I tell the students language paves the way to every death"

Booker winner Douglas Stuart's second novel, Young Mungo, is again set in gritty working class Glasgow, but also explores blossoming queer love. And, two debut novels also exploring queer identity with Indyana Schneider's 28 Questions and Omar Sakr's Son of Sin.

Booker winner Douglas Stuart's second novel, Young Mungo, is again set in gritty working class Glasgow, but also explores blossoming queer love. And, two debut novels also exploring queer identity with Indyana Schneider's 28 Questions and Omar Sakr's Son of Sin.

In 2019, one of Australia's best-known poets, Les Murray, passed away at the age of eighty. James Carleton and the panel discuss how Murray's faith influenced his writing, and examine the power of myth and story.

The managing editor of Cordite on acceptances, rejections, guest editors, money, book making and risk. Show notes Cordite Books, which has published poets including Jeanine Leane, John Mukky Burke, Alison Flett, Kim Cheng Boey, Tony Birch, Charmaine Papertalk Green, Omar Sakr & Lucy Van They will oxidise before you even finish reading, Kent's piece for … Continue reading "Ep 170. Kent MacCarter: The publisher's Kuiper Belt"

Each month we celebrate an Australian debut release of fiction or non-fiction in the Kill Your Darlings First Book Club. For February that debut is Son of Sin by Omar Sakr (Affirm Press), a multifaceted tale brimming with angels and djinn, racist kangaroos and adoring bats, examining with a poet's eye the destructive impetus of repressed desire and the complexities that make us human. Our theme song is Broke for Free's ‘Something Elated'. Sound production by Nial Hosken. Further reading: Read Ellen Cregan's review of Son of Sin in our March Books Roundup. Read about Omar's favourite books and reading habits in this month's Shelf Reflection. Son of Sin is available now from your local independent bookseller. (more…)

Chaired by Geordie Williamson. Omar Sakr is an acclaimed Arab-Australian poet and author. His most recent collection, The Lost Arabs, won the 2020 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry. His debut novel is Son of Sin (2022), a searing look at the impact of violence and repressed desires on a queer Arab Muslim man's life in Western Sydney.

Twilight Talks | Authorial Voice Hosted by Benjamin Law. Join Australia's favourite raconteur Ben Law for our rescheduled Twilight Talks, now on the Plane Tree Stage at 5pm. Living Gender brings together a dynamic panel to examine gender in contemporary Australia, featuring Yves Rees, whose memoir All About Yves: Notes from a Transition is a beautiful account of re-becoming and trans identity, Omar Sakr, a lauded Queer poet and novelist, whose thrilling writing examines notions of belonging when one's identity is at odds with one's family and faith, and Brandon Jack, a former AFL player who suffered greatly when he tried to conform to sport's rigid notions of masculinity, and was liberated when he reimagined what it meant to be a man.

Western Sydney, coastal Victoria and nineteenth-century America: reading Omar Sakr's Son of Sin, Karen Joy Fowler's Booth and Aoife Clifford's When We Fall with guests historian Ethan Blue and crime afficionado Felix Shannon

Omar Sakr is the author of two acclaimed poetry collections, These Wild Houses and The Lost Arabs. Son of Sin is his first novel, and in this interview we also find our about his forthcoming poetry collection and a possible fantasy book on the horizon. The Lost Arabs won the 2020 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Award, the John Bray Poetry Award, the Judith Wright Calanthe Award, and the Colin Roderick Award.  Omar is a widely published essayist and editor whose work has been translated into Arabic and Spanish.  If you enjoy this interview, listen to Omar's first interview on The Garret from 2020. About The Garret Read the transcript of this interview at thegarretpodcast.com. You can also follow The Garret on Twitter and Instagram, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Author and award-winning poet Omar Sakr discusses his debut novel ‘Son of Sin'. This coming-of-age story follows a young queer Muslim boy as he contends with an intergenerational legacy of family ties and ruptures. The novel explores faith, the supernatural, silence, memory, and rumour. With presenter Mel Cranenburgh.Website: https://www.rrr.org.au/explore/podcasts/backstory

 Acknowledgement of Country News Headlines Martin Hodgson is a Senior Advocate at the Foreign Prisoners' Support Service and co-hosts Curtain the Podcast along with South Sea Islander and Darumbal writer and academic Amy McQuire. Martin spoke with Priya about the shameful crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Australia and the work he has been doing with Amy and the families of these women to fight for justice and draw attention to systemic discrimination. Please be aware that this interview contains distressing content - if you need to speak with someone about this, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14.  Pan is from the La Trobe University Casuals Network. A group of casualised workers at La Trobe who are dedicated to improving working conditions. They join us today to speak on the widespread, systemic wage theft of casual staff and the Network's recent submission to the Senate Select Committee on Job Security. Jay Coonan from the Antipoverty Centre joins Thursday Breakfast to discuss why Services Australia are spying on people receiving welfare payments and to talk about the Anti Poverty Centre's ongoing campaign to Abolish Work For the Dole. Fetle is an Ethiopian-Australian woman based in Naarm, interested in dissecting ideas at the intersection of race, spirituality and communion. She's an emerging artist, writing and producing music, spoken word and sound art. Fetle joins us to speak about her new piece as part of the SIGNAL sound walk.  Omar Sakr is the author of two acclaimed poetry collections These Wild Houses and The Lost Arabs, which was awarded the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry. Omar joins us today to talk about his new novel Son of Sin which is out now with Affirm Press.

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.Today's episode features Anne Marie Te Whiu & David Stavanger discussing Red Room Poetry's inaugural Poetry MonthToday on the show...Poetry Month is a showcase of the incredible wealth of poetic talent in this country and will be Featuring:30 in 30 - delivering daily, original text/video poems from some of Australia's best poetsPoetry Workshops - with incredible poetsLine Break - a weekly online poetry showFair Trade - conversations with First Nations poetsWant more great conversations with Australian authors?Discover this and many more conversations on Final Draft every week from 2ser.https://2ser.com/final-draft

This week I wanted to do something a little different for our book club. Usually I'm bringing you some kind of long form narrative (typically a novel) and opening up on my thoughts about how the particular story engages with issues or questions that get to the heart of our lives.I love these stories, they're immensely satisfying and I'll definitely be back with more soon.This week though I wanted to bring you a little poetry. Specifically I wanted to let everyone out there know about Poetry Month an initiative from Red Room Poetry.This is the inaugural poetry month and it really is a festival of poetic art spanning styles from the traditional, through hip hop and an array of voices from throughout the community.Poetry Month is organised and run by Red Room Poetry and it's designed to increase the profile of Australian Poets, Poetry and Publishers.I don't know about you but I've always loved poetry. Having said that, I haven't always made time for it in my life.Poetry has a way of demanding your attention, slapping you in the face with a line that makes you look at the world like you've been wearing blinkers (spoiler alert - you have).A collection I've been loving recently, though by no means underestimating as it sneaks up on me in strange ways, is Evelyn Araluen's Drop Bear. Throughout the collection Araluen chews up ideas and visions, cliches and tropes to show us this country in ways we never thought to look…In Index Australis, Araluen writes:No law against that, no laws for nothingIn the age of entitlementIn the decolonial DundeeAnd well may we say , we will decideWho and howWell may we not be lectured and wellMay we do it slowlyJust there in that stanza, Araluen skewers our political class and us for our reliance on either side for their moral high ground while they leave so many languishing.Evelyn Araluen joins poetry month as part of Fair Trade - First Nations poetic conversations, a series of conversations bringing together some of the world's leading first nations poets.Poetry Month will also be Featuring:30 in 30 - delivering daily, original text/video poems from some of Australia's best poetsPoetry Workshops - with poets such as Tony Birch & Hope OneLine Break - a weekly online poetry show Fair Trade - conversations with First Nations poetsAnother poet who'll be featuring as part of poetry month is Omar Sakr. His collection The Lost Arabs won amongst other accolades The Prime Minister's Literary Awards Poetry Prize. I often wonder if the PM reads the works that get his award. I feel like if he had read The Lost Arabs we might get a little more humility, more understanding and less bluster.One thing that scares me when I read poetry is that I might misunderstand, but then the poet always seems to leave room. Omar is an Arab Australian poet whose work addresses identities that are not my own, and yet when I read in his poem How to Destroy The Body Slowly:You. Every day for a hundred yearsIf you're so luckyLive with this ordinaryDivinity, live with this death as long as you can& waste not a single day on a rose.I hear something of the insecurity and the beauty that I struggle to find in life sometimes and that we can all discover when we read Omar's poems.If you're looking for more, well Poetry Month starts soon and the best part of all is it's online, so join in wherever you are.For more details check out https://redroompoetry.org/ and discover all the poetry events across the month....

Award-winning poet Omar Sakr shares some of his work, inviting the audience into his process and passions.Omar Sakr is an award-winning poet born and raised in Western Sydney to Lebanese and Turkish Muslim migrants. He is the author of These Wild Houses (Cordite Books, 2017), which was shortlisted for the Judith Wright Calanthe Award and the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, as well as The Lost Arabs (University of Queensland Press, 2019), which was shortlisted for the Judith Wright Calanthe Award, the John Bray Poetry Award, the NSW Premier's Multicultural Literary Award, and the Colin Roderick Award. The Lost Arabs has also been released in the US through Andrews McMeel Universal. In 2019, Omar was the recipient of the Edward Stanley Award for Poetry, and in 2020, the Woollahra Digital Literary Award for Poetry. Omar's poems have been published in English, Arabic, and Spanish, featuring in the American Academy of Poets' Poem-a-Day, Prairie Schooner, The Margins, Tinderbox, Wildness, Peril, Circulo de Poesía, Overland, Meanjin, and Griffith Review, among others. He has also been anthologised in Border Lines: Poems of Migration (2020), in the Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry (2020), in Best Australian Poems 2016, and in Contemporary Australian Poetry (2016). A widely published essayist, Omar's creative and critical non-fiction work has appeared in The Saturday Paper, The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, Archer, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, Going Down Swinging, SBS Life, The Wheeler Centre, and Junkee. His essays have been anthologised in Fire, Flood, and Plague (2020) and Going Postal: More Than Yes or No (2018), and his short fiction has appeared in Kindred: 12 Queer LoveOzYA Stories (2019) as well as After Australia (2020).Queerstories an award-winning LGBTQI+ storytelling project directed by Maeve Marsden, with regular events around Australia. For more information, visit www.queerstories.com.au and follow Queerstories on Facebook.The Queerstories book is published by Hachette Australia, and can be purchased from your favourite independent bookseller or on Booktopia.To support Queerstories, become a patron at www.patreon.com/ladysingsitbetterAnd for gay stuff and insomnia rants follow Maeve Marsden on Twitter and Instagram. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

After Australia (Affirm Press with the Sweatshop Literacy Movement 2021). No, Australia has not ended - it's a book edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad. Climate catastrophe, police brutality, white genocide, totalitarian rule and the erasure of black history provide the backdrop for stories of love, courage and hope. An anthology, twelve of Australia’s most daring Indigenous writers and writers of colour provide a glimpse of Australia as we head toward the year 2050. Unique voices and a great editor - whose input is apparent, but he's humbly kept in the background to let the writers shine, and we all benefit.  Featuring Ambelin Kwaymullina, Claire G. Coleman, Omar Sakr, Future D. Fidel, Karen Wyld, Khalid Warsame, Kaya Ortiz, Roanna Gonsalves, Sarah Ross, Zoya Patel, Michelle Law and Hannah Donnelly. Edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad. Original concept by Lena Nahlous. Michael Mohammed Ahmad is the founding director of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and editor of the critically acclaimed anthology, After Australia (Affirm Press, 2021). Mohammed's debut novel, The Tribe (Giramondo, 2014), won the 2015 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelists of the Year Award. His second novel, The Lebs (Hachette Australia, 2018) won the 2019 NSW Premier's Multicultural Literary Award and was shortlisted for the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award. Mohammed received his Doctorate of Creative Arts from Western Sydney University in 2017 Bede Haines is a solicitor, specialising in litigation and a partner at Holding Redlich, an Australian commercial law firm. He lives in Sydney, Australia. Known to read books, ride bikes and eat cereal (often). bede.haines@holdingredlich.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

After Australia (Affirm Press with the Sweatshop Literacy Movement 2021). No, Australia has not ended - it's a book edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad. Climate catastrophe, police brutality, white genocide, totalitarian rule and the erasure of black history provide the backdrop for stories of love, courage and hope. An anthology, twelve of Australia’s most daring Indigenous writers and writers of colour provide a glimpse of Australia as we head toward the year 2050. Unique voices and a great editor - whose input is apparent, but he's humbly kept in the background to let the writers shine, and we all benefit.  Featuring Ambelin Kwaymullina, Claire G. Coleman, Omar Sakr, Future D. Fidel, Karen Wyld, Khalid Warsame, Kaya Ortiz, Roanna Gonsalves, Sarah Ross, Zoya Patel, Michelle Law and Hannah Donnelly. Edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad. Original concept by Lena Nahlous. Michael Mohammed Ahmad is the founding director of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and editor of the critically acclaimed anthology, After Australia (Affirm Press, 2021). Mohammed's debut novel, The Tribe (Giramondo, 2014), won the 2015 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelists of the Year Award. His second novel, The Lebs (Hachette Australia, 2018) won the 2019 NSW Premier's Multicultural Literary Award and was shortlisted for the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award. Mohammed received his Doctorate of Creative Arts from Western Sydney University in 2017 Bede Haines is a solicitor, specialising in litigation and a partner at Holding Redlich, an Australian commercial law firm. He lives in Sydney, Australia. Known to read books, ride bikes and eat cereal (often). bede.haines@holdingredlich.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

After Australia (Affirm Press with the Sweatshop Literacy Movement 2021). No, Australia has not ended - it's a book edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad. Climate catastrophe, police brutality, white genocide, totalitarian rule and the erasure of black history provide the backdrop for stories of love, courage and hope. An anthology, twelve of Australia’s most daring Indigenous writers and writers of colour provide a glimpse of Australia as we head toward the year 2050. Unique voices and a great editor - whose input is apparent, but he's humbly kept in the background to let the writers shine, and we all benefit.  Featuring Ambelin Kwaymullina, Claire G. Coleman, Omar Sakr, Future D. Fidel, Karen Wyld, Khalid Warsame, Kaya Ortiz, Roanna Gonsalves, Sarah Ross, Zoya Patel, Michelle Law and Hannah Donnelly. Edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad. Original concept by Lena Nahlous. Michael Mohammed Ahmad is the founding director of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and editor of the critically acclaimed anthology, After Australia (Affirm Press, 2021). Mohammed's debut novel, The Tribe (Giramondo, 2014), won the 2015 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelists of the Year Award. His second novel, The Lebs (Hachette Australia, 2018) won the 2019 NSW Premier's Multicultural Literary Award and was shortlisted for the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award. Mohammed received his Doctorate of Creative Arts from Western Sydney University in 2017 Bede Haines is a solicitor, specialising in litigation and a partner at Holding Redlich, an Australian commercial law firm. He lives in Sydney, Australia. Known to read books, ride bikes and eat cereal (often). bede.haines@holdingredlich.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/australian-and-new-zealand-studies

Hosted by Maeve Marsden with Leonard Mickelo, Sarah Tiong, Omar Sakr, Liv Hewson and Cadance Bell This is a special one. Queerstories, as you probably know, is the legendary LGBTQI storytelling night, conceived of and hosted by Maeve Marsden, and it was exceptionally fun to hold the biggest ever Queerstories event ever, right here at the Opera House. You’re about to hear an amazing collection of stories, from the funny to the profound to the seriously embarrassing. This is one to stay tuned to. Enjoy! 

In this episode, Kendall, rachel, and Lena talk about: * Starting out in finance, the arts, classic cars journalism, and more... * Uses (appropriate or not) for creativity in leadership * Realizing that a potential lifelong career in banking would be...boring * First startup experience as a web copywriter * First formal leadership experience as a bootstrapped startup CEO * Ebola outbreak response...no biggie, right?! * Becoming more intentional as a leader, learning about leadership frameworks * Growing out of the 'relationship' as a cofounder, wanting different things * Big, International, Complicated :) * Becoming a regular old Engineering Manager, and...immediately becoming a VP of Engineering * Twitter as a source of leadership learning, despite the trashfire * Managing in all directions, 360 degree leadership * Acknowledging that leadership successes depend on the quality of the team * Hiring tenets, "value add" vs "culture fit" * Finding the right role at CircleCI * Authority and how to swing it, understanding power distance * Maintaining a list of hobbies to take up as a hobby * A strong desire for "really good fries" * A recommendation for poetry books by Omar Sakr, more books recommended below * Working on dialing back the tendency to take charge in non-work life (such a familiar struggle :)) More books Lena recommends: - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50887097-why-fish-don-t-exist - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43131602-into-the-planet - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39731655-in-extremis You can find Lena on the internet at: - http://twitter.com/lrnrd - https://lenareinhard.com - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lenareinhard/ Special thanks to Mel Stanley for our theme music

A vivid and compelling portrait of life growing up in Western Sydney.

Omar Sakr has become the first Arab-Australian to win the Prime Minister’s Literary Award in any category for his collection that delves into his experiences as a 'lost Arab'. - في كانبرا تحدث عمر صقر عن تصريحات الوزير بيتر داتون التي تناولت المهاجرين اللبنانيين مثل عائلته، أثناء استلام الجائزة الرفيعة.

In this daring collection of speculative fiction, 12 Indigenous writers and writers of colour offer up visions of Australia’s possible futures: after colonisation, after white supremacy, and after climate change. Authors Claire G Coleman and Omar Sakr sit down with After Australia editor Michael Mohammed Ahmad to discuss their contributions and the broader aims of this bold, provocative, and galvanising anthology. Recorded at MWF Digital in 2020.Support MWF: https://mwf.com.au/donate/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After Australia Edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad Climate catastrophe, police brutality, white genocide, totalitarian rule and the erasure of black history provide the backdrop for stories of love, courage and hope. In this unflinching new anthology, twelve of Australia’s most daring Indigenous writers and writers of colour provide a glimpse of Australia as we head toward the year 2050. Featuring Ambelin Kwaymullina, Claire G. Coleman, Omar Sakr, Future D. Fidel, Karen Wyld, Khalid Warsame, Kaya Ortiz, Roanna Gonsalves, Sarah Ross, Zoya Patel, Michelle Law and Hannah Donnelly. Edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad. Original concept by Lena Nahlous. Published by Affirm Press in partnership with Diversity Arts Australia and Sweatshop Literacy Movement.

Acknowledgement of country News headlines with Cait Kelly The Thursday Breakfast team discusses recent incidents of police violence across the continent and the systemic nature of this carceral violence. They also share the link to the GoFundMe JUSTICE FOR SHERRY TILBEROO and details for an upcoming vigil and march in Meanjin to demand justice for the death in custody of Aunty Sherry Tilberoo. Schereazade speaks to Jessica Stott, the Service Delivery Manager at the Victorian women, non-binary, and gender-diverse referral group WIRE. WIRE provides a free Victoria-wide support, information, and referrals service. Jessica joins us to discuss the intersections of domestic and family violence, COVID-19, and the lockdown period.  We hear a small excerpt from the panel 'Arab-Australian Authors Unite for Lebanon' recorded on Saturday 5th September. To raise funds for the victims of the Beirut explosion, some of so-called Australia’s most celebrated authors, poets, and academics of Lebanese and Arab backgrounds came together for two nights of online discussions about the literature of the Arab diaspora. Hosted by Better Read than Dead bookstore in Newtown Sydney and Sweatshop Writers Collective the panel was moderated by Dr. Jumana Bayeh and featured Ghassan Hage, Amani Haydar, Omar Sakr, Sarah Ayoub, Ruby Hamad, and M M Morsi. 100% of the ticket proceeds were donated to Impact Lebanon, an NGO that provides disaster relief as well as activism resources for the Lebanese diaspora.  Carly sits down with Vanmali Hermans, a Wiradjuri, Irish & Flemish woman living on Ngunnawal and Ngambri land. Mali joins us to speak about the Australian Government's recent announcement of independent assessors to be appointed as part of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Mali is a disabled organiser and writer, is a board member of Women with Disabilities ACT, and currently works in gender-based violence policy alongside studying a Master of Social Work.  Songs Pookie - TuesdayMo'Ju, Birdz, Trials - Rider in the Rain 2020

Omar Sakr is a poet and writer who brings the personal and political to life. In this interview, he discusses his writing craft, his foray into speculative fiction and the difference between what he publishes and what he writes for himself. Omar is the author of These Wild Houses, a collection of poetry shortlisted for the Judith Wright Calanthe Award and the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, as well as The Lost Arabs, which was shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards, the John Bray Poetry Award and the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. In 2020, Omar contributed to the anthology After Australia with the short story 'White Flu'. Elsewhere, Omar's articles and essays are published in The Saturday Paper, The Guardian,The Sydney Morning Herald, Archer, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, Going Down Swinging, SBS Online, SBS Life, SBS Comedy, The Wheeler Centre, and Junkee. If you enjoy this interview, you may also be interested in this interview with Michael Mohammed Ahmad, the editor of After Australia. About The Garret Read the transcript of this interview soon at thegarretpodcast.com. The interview was recorded by Zoom, and we can't wait to start recording in person again soon. You can also follow The Garret on Twitter and Facebook, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After AustraliaI think there are a lot of ways you can approach a short story collection and After Australia absolutely hits all of these…Perhaps you’re looking for a way to discover new Australian writing and writers? Well, After Australia has a selection of twelve incredible Indigenous Writers and Writers of Colour including Ambellin Kwaymullina, Karen Wyld, Omar Sakr, Future D Fidel and Zoya Patel.Maybe you like reading a story in a single sitting? After Australia is like a moreish pack of mixed lollies that you promise yourself your only going to have one of but end up finishing way more than intended.Maybe you love writing around a theme that lets you explore ideas from different perspectives. Well After Australia promises to imagine an alternate Australia - after empire, after colony, after white supremacy.See After Australia is the book we’ve needed but perhaps didn’t know it. As we all try to come to grips with the impact of pandemic on our lives it is unavoidable that the structural imbalances in our society are tipping further against marginalised communities.After Australia seeks futures where these balances are challenged, inverted or perhaps simply upended as environmental destruction flips the game board.In a collection like this there’s simply so much to talk about. I’m going to hone in on one story to give you all an idea of what After Australia has on offer…Claire G Coleman’s Ostraka takes us into the searing heat of an isolated, remote compound. An individual waits against the chain-link fence in a seeming prison of inertia. Around the compound are others; pale skin turning a vivid, painful scarlet in the unforgiving heat.It is Australia’s near future and the government has enacted the Ostraka law. Hearkening back to classical Athenian democracy the Ostrakismos gives the body politic the power to ostracise citizens. But who is to be ostracised and why?!In Ostraka Claire does so much in a very short space. The pain and remoteness of ostracism is immediately apparent in the harsh environment, as is the purgatory of uncertainty as the lawyers line up periodically to give their clients next to no news.Ostraka complicates this narrative though as it shows us the Ostraka laws were seemingly built around the established precedent of offshore detention and individuals are buried under mountains of go nowhere paperwork.The callous inhumanity of the existing system of offshore and endless detention is highlighted simply by applying it to everyday people (and by everyday let’s just understand we mean white and middle class).So do we hate the increasingly authoritarian government that through mission creep might one day enact such laws? Or do we hate ourselves for being willfully blind as it happened to others, only to sit up when it happened to us? Maybe we should thank Claire G Coleman for showing us this vision, so that we might do something before it’s too late.And that’s just a sampling! After Australia is a mighty collection of twelve incredible Indigenous Writers and Writers of Colour, it’s been edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad who is the founding director of Sweatshop Western Sydney Writers Collective. It’s a book that’s able to look our historical moment square in the eye and it has a lot to say to Australia today...

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.Today's episode features Karen Wyld discussing we live on, in story her story in the anthology After Australia.After Australia offers a selection of twelve incredible Indigenous Writers and Writers of Colour including Ambellin Kwaymullina, Omar Sakr, Future D Fidel and Zoya Patel. Together they imagine Australia for 2050 and beyond.Karen Wyld’s debut novel is 2013’s When Rosa Came Home. She is the winner of the 2020 Dorothy Hewitt award for an unpublished manuscript. She is the author of we live on, in story in the After Australia Anthology of speculative fiction.We live on, in story chronicles generations of a family weaving through their history and into untold and deliberately forgotten stories...Join me as we discover Karen Wyld's we live on, in story

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.Today's episode features Hannah Donnelly discussing her work in the anthology After Australia.After Australia offers a selection of twelve incredible Indigenous Writers and Writers of Colour including Ambellin Kwaymullina, Karen Wyld, Omar Sakr, Future D Fidel and Zoya Patel. Together they imagine Australia for 2050 and beyond.

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.Today's episode features Michael Mohammed Ahmad discussing the anthology After Australia.After Australia offers a selection of twelve incredible Indigenous Writers and Writers of Colour including Ambellin Kwaymullina, Karen Wyld, Omar Sakr, Future D Fidel and Zoya Patel. Together they imagine Australia for 2050 and beyond.Michael Mohammed Ahmad is the author of The Tribe and The Lebs, as well as the founding Director of Sweatshop. He has edited the collection.

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.Today's episode features Khalid Warsame discussing his story in the anthology After Australia.After Australia offers a selection of twelve incredible Indigenous Writers and Writers of Colour including Ambellin Kwaymullina, Karen Wyld, Omar Sakr, Future D Fidel and Zoya Patel. Together they imagine Australia for 2050 and beyond.Khalid is a Melbourne based writer, editor, and arts producer. He’s a former fiction editor at the Lifted Brow and co-director of the National Young Writers Festival, and is also writing his first novel.Khalid’s story in the anthology is List of Known Remedies. It’s a seemingly innocuous tale of friendship, relationships and a sick dog that hides a startling and sinister future…Join me as we discover Khalid Warsame’s List of Known Remedies

Michael Mohammed Ahmad is both a writer and editor. He received the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Australian Novelist Award for his debut novel The Tribe, and the sequel, The Lebs, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 2020 he is the editor behind After Australia, a collection of short stories about Australia's potential futures, and it is this work that the interview focuses on. The anthology includes works from Ambelin Kwaymullina, Claire G. Coleman, Omar Sakr, Future D. Fidel, Karen Wyld, Khalid Warsame, Kaya Ortiz, Roanna Gonsalves, Sarah Ross, Zoya Patel, Michelle Law and Hannah Donnelly. Mohammed is also the founder and director of Sweatshop Literary Movement in Western Sydney.  If you enjoy this interview, you may also be interested in this subsequent interview with Omar Sakr, a contributor to After Australia. About The Garret Read the transcript of this interview at thegarretpodcast.com soon. The interview was recorded by Zoom, and we can't wait to start recording in person again soon. You can also follow The Garret on Twitter and Facebook, or follow our host Astrid Edwards on Twitter or Instagram. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Three books that explore the world through the eyes of minorities and outsiders: Angie Cruz on Dominicana, After Australia anthology and C Pam Zhang's alternative version of the American West.

Today's poem is A Beautiful Child by Omar Sakr.

Today's poem is A Beautiful Child by Omar Sakr.

Poet Omar Sakr talks about his poetry collection, The Lost Arabs, and growing up Arab and queer in Australia.

A year on from the Christchurch terrorist attack, Muslims in Australia are still wrestling with a new level of fear. Some have been drawn back to faith, while others are questioning the way the media and politics have stoked division. This is part three in a three-part series.Guest: Poet and writer for The Saturday Paper, Omar Sakr.Background reading:The Saturday PaperThe MonthlyFor more information on today’s episode, visit 7ampodcast.com.au. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Khalid Warsame, Melanie Cheng and Omar Sakr at the Wheeler Centre Omar Sakr and Melanie Cheng are two very different voices with very different styles, but over the past few years both have blasted welcome fresh air into the Australian literary scene. Melanie Cheng is a GP as well as a writer and her debut short-story collection, Australia Day, won the 2018 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction. Her new book, Room for a Stranger, is a novel set in Melbourne, about the unlikely friendship between an older woman and a young student from Hong Kong. Omar Sakr's second book of poetry, The Lost Arabs, has been described as a 'seething, urgent collection' about sexuality, divinity and redemption. His debut collection, These Wild Houses, was critically acclaimed and shortlisted for several awards including the Kenneth Slessor Prize. Hosted by Khalid Warsame, the pair discuss their work at a lunchtime session. Support the Wheeler Centre: https://www.wheelercentre.com/support-us/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Talking to Marty this week on H R U? is writer and poet, Omar Sakr. Omar opens up about his struggles with identity and breaking down stigmas that society labels individuals with. He is a Muslim and bisexual male, and his work presents a new narrative on Arab culture. Marty and Omar also talk about the culture of racism and acceptance in Australia. Together they take a deep dive into what more that we can be doing.

Beverley and Benjamin are joined by writers Brittney Cooper, Omar Sakr and Zoe Norton Lodge at the SWF.

Beverley and Benjamin are joined by writers Brittney Cooper, Omar Sakr and Zoe Norton Lodge at the SWF.

Beverley and Benjamin are joined by writers Brittney Cooper, Omar Sakr and Zoe Norton Lodge at the SWF.

Omar is an Arab-Australian poet from Western Sydney. His first collection of poetry, These Wild Houses was shortlisted for the Judith Wright Calanthe Award and the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry.Omar latest collection is The Lost Arabs. The collection explores family and social life; with Omar delving into what it means to be Arab Australian, to be gay and how these identities are never just personal. It’s deeply personal but also social look at the ways in which identity and community are structured, then legitimised or denied.

Rodney Croome discusses the latest 'Religious Freedom' politics in Australia, with analysis of the Morrison Government's and Labor's policy rhetorics.Felicity Marlowe from Rainbow Families Victoria discusses recommendations in the IVF Review Report, commissioned by Victoria's Government.Poet Omar Sakr reads from his new book The Lost Arabs, recorded by Di Cousens from 3CR's Spoken. To hear Omar's interview with Di and more of his poetry: https://www.3cr.org.au/spoken-word/episode-201907040900/spoken-word-omar-sakr

Sydney poet, Omar Sakr, reads from his new book, The Lost Arabs and reflects on life and identity in contemporary Australia. Interviewed by Di Cousens.

Plus, Armando Lucas Correa on WW2 novel The Daughter's Tale, and Erin Gough and Omar Sakr on queer YA anthology Kindred.

Recently one of Australia's best-known poets, Les Murray, passed away at the age of eighty. James Carleton and the panel remember Murray and discuss how his faith influenced his writing.

Recently one of Australia's best-known poets, Les Murray, passed away at the age of eighty. James Carleton and the panel remember Murray and discuss how his faith influenced his writing.

Great Conversations features interviews with authors and writers, exploring books, writing and literary culture from Australia and the world.Today's episode features Omar Sakr discussing his new collection The Lost Arabs.The Lost Arabs explores identity, family and social life; with Omar delving into what it means to be Arab Australian, to be gay and how these identities are never just personal. The collection is deeply personal but also social look at the ways in which identity and community are structured, then legitimised or denied.

At the SWF, Beverley and Benjamin are joined by writers Brittney Cooper, Omar Sakr and Zoe Norton Lodge.

At the SWF, Beverley and Benjamin are joined by writers Brittney Cooper, Omar Sakr and Zoe Norton Lodge.

At the SWF, Beverley and Benjamin are joined by writers Brittney Cooper, Omar Sakr and Zoe Norton Lodge.

Writer and poet Omar Sakr reads his remarkable essay 'Any Percentage of a Heart Is Still A Heart' from Meanjin's Autumn 2018 edition. In this piece, Sakr uses a conversation between himself and his cousin about his own bisexuality to frame a wider discussion about Australia's controversial 2017 same-sex marriage postal survey. Sakr delves into the fallout of the survey on the LGBTQI community, his own status as a queer Arab-Australian man in Australia, and his complex relationship with western Sydney.

We chat to poet, editor & essayist Omar Sakr about his new collection of poetry set to come out early 2017, he reads some of his work & floors us. Also we catch up with countertenor diva, jazz singer and cabaret artiste Mama Alto about her new show and hear about her project The Divine Femmes, a trans and gender diverse choir.   Omar Sakr is an Arab Australian poet whose work has featured in Meanjin, Overland, Mascara Lit Review, The Guardian, The Saturday Paper and Junkee, among many others. He has been shortlisted for the Judith Wright Poetry Prize for New and Emerging Poets, as well as the ACU Poetry Prize. You can purchase a copy of his collection of poetry, ‘These Wild Horses’ here. Mama Alto is a countertenor diva, jazz singer and cabaret artiste. Fierce, femme and fabulous, she has been lauded as “divine” (Havana Tribune, Cuba), as “near flawless” (The Age), and “a knockout” (The Herald Sun). She fascinates audiences with “an idiosyncratic mix of statuesque fragility” (The Music), and the accolades roll in from there - “velvet-voiced” (Sometimes Melbourne), “angelic vocal perfection” (The Plus Ones), “transcendent” (Stage Whispers), “breathtaking” (ArtsHub), “hypnotically beautiful, elegant and mysterious” (Adelaide Advertiser), and “bewitching” (SameSame). 
Follow what Mama Alto is up to via her Facebook page.Music: Mykki Blanco -- Loner (Mykki, 2016).Arthur Russell -- Arm Around You (Calling Out of Context, 2004).Blood Orange -- Best to You (Freetown Sound, 2016).

In this episode of the Strange Horizons podcast, editor Ciro Faienza presents poetry from the July issues of Strange Horizons."Odessa" by Marina Berlin read by Marina Berlin. You can read the full text of the poem and more about Marina here. "Interview with a 22nd-Century Sex Worker" by Darren Lipman read by Ciro Faienza. You can read the full text of the poem and more about Darren here. "A Mergirl Speaks of Travels" by Michelle Vider read by Michelle Vider. You can read the full text of the poem and more about Michelle here. "Duck Dance, Two-Step" by Halee Kirkwood read by Halee Kirkwood. You can read the full text of the poem and more about Halee here. "The Sparrows in Her Hair" by Hester J. Rook read by Rebecca Brooks-Steele. You can read the full text of the poem and more about Hester J. here. "Sawa" by Karolina Fedyk read by Karolina Fedyk. You can read the full text of the poem and more about Karolina here. "Stone Heart" by Omar Sakr read by Ciro Faienza. You can read the full text of the poem and more about Omar here. "eve (and adam)" by Safiya Correia read by Romie Stott. You can read the full text of the poem and more about Safiya here.