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<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">MES Forum Members, please join us in congratulated Sara Abou Rashed,
</span><span style="font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">English PhD student Sara Abou Rashed. Her debut poetry collection,
<i>Theories of Return, </i>is now in print! Congratulations, Sara! The campus book launch is on April 20</span><span style="font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">th</span><span style="font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> at
3:00pm, and there will be a launch event at the McConnell Arts Center on April 30th. Details are
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<b>About the book:</b></div>
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<i>Theories of Return</i> is an urgent and unflinching poetry collection that resists both literal and literary erasure, asserting the right to exist. In these pages, Sara Abou Rashed’s voice does not ask permission but commands attention, bearing witness to
exile while refusing silence. As much as the book honors Sara's family displacement in 1948 from Palestine to Syrian refugee camps and later to the U.S., it is ultimately collective rather than confessional, pressing outward to ask universal questions about
the ethics of war, ownership, language, motherhood, and intimacy. Each poem operates as its own theory and attempt at return, binding abstraction to lived experience, and inherited history to the brutal clarity of the present moment. Formally daring and emotionally
exacting, <i>Theories of Return</i> offers readers poetry that is intellectually rigorous, deeply human, and unafraid to speak.</div>
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<b><a href="https://english.osu.edu/events/sara-abou-rasheds-theories-return-poetry-book-launch" title="https://english.osu.edu/events/sara-abou-rasheds-theories-return-poetry-book-launch" data-outlook-id="263ee6de-efb4-40ff-87db-14d104789b18">Event Details</a>:</b></div>
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<b>Monday, April 20, 3:00-4:30pm</b></div>
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<b>311 Denney Hall </b></div>
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<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">This event is cosponsored by NESA, English and
<i>The Journal</i>, and will feature readings from Visiting Assistant Professor of Poetry
</span><span style="color: rgb(186, 12, 47);"><b><a href="https://english.osu.edu/people/pitiniidavis.1" id="OWA2efaff69-d0c4-f967-c7d4-f2941991e437" class="OWAAutoLink" data-outlook-id="ed3df559-1532-4b09-96f0-36547d75ef54" style="color: rgb(186, 12, 47);">Allison
Pitinii Davis</a>, </b></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">MFA student </span>
<span style="color: rgb(186, 12, 47);"><b><a href="https://english.osu.edu/people/ponnuraju.1" id="OWA1d6c651e-b6f2-24aa-34e0-2a5b86fc4992" class="OWAAutoLink" data-outlook-id="eb7ab406-acb0-4d00-ab20-eb72c83c5fa8" style="color: rgb(186, 12, 47);">Misha Ponnuraju</a></b></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">,
followed by a Q&A with NESA faculty </span><span style="color: rgb(186, 12, 47);"><b><a href="https://nesa.osu.edu/people/sellman.13" id="OWA0e4c495f-bbd0-98db-66b7-281c246d76dd" class="OWAAutoLink" data-outlook-id="cab66358-b1f0-405e-b05b-1a2059251827" style="color: rgb(186, 12, 47);">Johanna
Sellman</a></b></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>. </b></span></div>
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Melinda, thank you for passing this info around!!</div>
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And personally, I'm hosting an official launch off-campus that will be Thursday, April 30th, 6-8:30pm, at the McConnell Arts Center. I'd love to see you there if you're able to make it! More here:
<a href="https://mcconnellarts.org/calendar/sara-abou-rashed-s-theories-of-return-book-launch-with-scott-woods-and-mandy-shunnarah" data-outlook-id="4aac715c-f7b5-497a-8652-298b7d3ecd12">
https://mcconnellarts.org/calendar/sara-abou-rashed-s-theories-of-return-book-launch-with-scott-woods-and-mandy-shunnarah</a> </div>
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Best,</div>
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Sara</div>
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