Author Event feat. Maha Hashwi

When: Wednesday, October 14th at 6:30 pm (doors open at 6:15pm)

Where: Three Avenues Bookshop - 3009 N Southport Ave, Chicago, IL 60657

Copies of will be available for purchase during the event, and participants will have the opportunity to get their books signed by Maha Hashwi.

A place to belong for anyone caught between cultures, countries, or selves.
The Pomegranate is a Grenade is a debut poetry collection that examines what it means to grow up Arab and Muslim in the United States, where home is both inherited and continually reshaped. Maha Hashwi draws from the textures of an immigrant household—food shared across generations, religious traditions carried forward, the weight of displacement, and the small, steady acts of love that hold a family together.
Hashwi’s poems move between personal narrative and cultural memory, exploring how identity changes with time, migration, and the stories passed down through parents and community. She writes of resistance, tenderness, and the contradictions of belonging to more than one place, offering readers a vivid look at the emotional landscape of the diaspora.
Honest, accessible, and rooted in lived experience, this collection invites readers into the rooms, rituals, and relationships that shape a life between countries—and asks what we carry, and what carries us, when we call more than one place home.

Maha Hashwi is a storyteller and spoken word poet. She is unapologetic in her identities as a Muslim and Arab woman. Her debut poetry book, The Pomegranate is a Grenade, will be published September 1st, 2026. She hosts a writing workshop in NYC called Anyone Can Write encouraging all to put pen to paper. Maha has attended Aspen Institute's Summer Words Writers Conference in Poetry and Tin House's Winter Workshop. She grew up in Dearborn, Michigan and now lives in New York City.

Faisal Mohyuddin is the author of Elsewhere: An Elegy (Next Page Press), The Displaced Children of Displaced Children (Eyewear Publishing), and The Riddle of Longing (Backbone/Bull City). He teaches high school English in Chicago and creative writing at Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies. He is also a visual artist.

Three Avenues Bookshop's goal is to be a safe, accessible, and inclusive space for all. Please email us at [email protected] to let us know if you need any accommodations for this event, and we'll do our best to meet them. Accommodations can include but are not limited to the following: space for a wheelchair or other mobility device, masks, answering questions about the space over the phone or email ahead of time, etc.

Event venue & nearby stays

Three Avenues Bookshop, 3009 North Southport Avenue, Chicago, United States

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