• To read old announcements go to Archive.
• The Middle East and Middle East American Center of the Graduate Center at CUNY is hosting a forthcoming event featuring RAWI members. Lubnan: A Literary Evening, with Lawrence Joseph, Etel Adnan, and Patricia Sarrafian Ward, will take place on Friday, December 8, from 6:30-8:30 PM at the Segal Theater at 365 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The event also will include the participation of Mariam Cortas Said, who will read from Rasha Salti's "Siege Notes."
• Mohja Kahf has just published the novel John Updike should have read before writing Terrorist. The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf is now available from Carroll and Graf. Featuring exuberant characters, with narrative nods to Sandra Cisneros, Willa Cather, Alex Haley, Allegra Goodman, and other influences, this novel gives you Muslim Americans as you've never seen them before (the kind you sure won't find in Updike's latest)-three-dimensional, likeable, infuriating, funny, real. It's a novel about friendships, racism, prayer, and life in hopelessly flat Indiana, which anyone would need faith to survive. The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf charts the spiritual and social landscape of Muslims in middle America, from five daily prayers to the Indy 500 car race finale.
• New blog launched: Arab Americans have entered the blogosphere through Arabisto.com, which aims to be the Drudge Report and Huffington Post of the Middle East. Arabisto.com features original blogs from seven experts who have spent a majority of their lifetimes immersed in Arab American affairs. Among Arabisto.com's exclusive bloggers are RAWI members Ray Hanania and Hayan Charara. www.arabisto.com
• New philosophical website launched: CognitiveDissidents.org, founded by RAWI member Mohammed Abed and designed by RAWI member and rawi.org creator Joe Namy, is now online. The site offers substantive discourse focused on issues of moral concern in the public domain. RAWI executive director Steven Salaita is among its writers. www.cognitivedissidents.org