Amongst The Grapevines is a mixed form memoir of poetry, prose and digital illustrations. This multifaceted collection explores a deep and personal connection to the Syrian conflict, those afflicted by it and the sense of misplaced identity it has caused. Amongst The Grapevines uncovers both the beauty and the challenges associated with being part of an Australian-Syrian diaspora, the struggle to understand and belong in both worlds and the migrant experience.

Details from the Author:

“When the Syrian conflict began in 2011, it flung us all into the air and when we landed, we landed differently. We landed trying to grasp onto meaning, trying to grasp onto something tangible, trying to hold onto the pieces of the Syria we knew and loved but they no longer fit the same. Our relationship with Syria, with each other, with our second home, with ourselves – were convoluted concepts. We tried to navigate our way through these pieces and learn how to place them together under dire but new circumstances. For me, Amongst The Grapevines, was the frame of support. Initially it wasn’t a hundred pages and it didn’t have a name. It was a scream of desperation that slowly developed into creative words. Over the years it took on many names. Over the years it took on many responsibilities. I shaped it and allowed it to shape me. I poured my truth into it; the love, the pain, the guilt, the heartbreak, the beauty, the mistakes, the retributions, the reparations. This book is my truth as an individual not a nation. This book is as many perspectives as one mind can develop. It is unfiltered and unafraid. It is what I knew and what I felt at some point or all the points throughout the last decade. I’m shaking at the idea that the words of this diaspora child will travel through the grapevines and be amongst you all”.