Join Saqi Books and the Arab British Centre to welcome celebrated Iraqi poet, novelist, translator and scholar Sinan Antoon.

Sinan will be discussing his latest book, Notes From a Lost Country – a breathtaking portrait of lives rebuilt in the shadow of loss. The novel follows two Iraqi men in exile – a retired doctor slipping into dementia, and a deserter marked by war – as they navigate life in America after the 2003 Gulf War. Both carry wounds that won’t heal: one lost in the past, the other desperate to erase it. Sinan will be in conversation with fellow Iraqi author Dalia Al-Dujaili, whose debut book Babylon, Albion: A Personal History of Myth and Migration was published in 2025.

Sinan Antoon is an Iraqi poet, novelist, translator, and scholar. He left Iraq after the 199i Gulf War. He has published two collections of poetry and five novels. His works, translated to seventeen languages, include I`jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody, The Book of Collateral Damage, which was longlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, and The Corpse Washer, which won the 2014 Arab American Book Award and the 2017 Arabic Literature Prize from Lagardère and the Arab World Institute in France. His translation of Ibtisam Azem’s The Book of Disappearance was longlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize. He is an associate professor at New York University.

Dalia Al-Dujaili is an Iraqi British writer, editor and producer based in London. She is the online editor of The British Journal of Photography and the founder of The Road to Nowhere Magazine. She tells stories from the SWANA region and diaspora, and reports on community-led stories from the margins for The Guardian, Huck, The New Arab and more. Al-Dujaili was selected as one of Dazed’s 100 most impactful cultural voices in 2025.

Tickets cost £5 and include refreshments. Book via Eventbrite.

If cost is a barrier to attending, please reach out to us on info@arabbritishcentre.org.uk!

Please note, the Arab British Centre is not a fully accessible building. Please reach out to us to discuss your access requirements.