Adania Shibli and Michael Marder: Discussion

Maumaus / Lumiar Cité, in partnership with IFILNOVA (CineLab) / FCSH / UNL, presents a discussion between writer Adania Shibli and philosopher Michael Marder on literature in our monstrous times, exploring its possibilities beyond historical forms and personal testimonies. The act of writing in the face of ongoing exclusions and normalised political subjugations will be examined as a task not to be foregone; instead, it is to be undertaken against a learned sense of helplessness. Within these conditions, writing will also be discussed as a transformative force within imaginary spaces that can be created to counter colonial erasures, in Palestine and elsewhere. The final theme will address writing as a form of learning not to become a monster.

The discussion will be conducted in English. Entry is free but limited to the number of seats available. Following the event, Adania Shibli will be signing copies of Um Detalhe Menor.

Bio

Adania Shibli (Palestine, 1974) has written novels, plays, short stories and narrative essays. She has twice been awarded with the Qattan Young Writer’s Award-Palestine in 2001 for her novel Masaas (2002, translated as Touch), and in 2003 for her novel Kulluna Ba’id bethat al Miqdar aan el-Hub (2004, translated as We Are All Equally Far from Love). Her latest is the novel Tafsil Thanawi (2017, translated as Minor Detail and published by Dom Quixote as Um Detalhe Menor), which was shortlisted for the National Book Award in 2020, and in 2021 was nominated for the International Booker Prize.

Michael Marder (Russia, 1980) is Ikerbasque Research Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz. His work spans the fields of phenomenology, environmental philosophy, and political thought. He is the editor of The Philosophical Salon and the author of several books, including, in the last two years, Pyropolitics: Fire and the Political (2025), Plants in Place: A Phenomenology of the Vegetal (2024, with Edward S. Casey), The Phoenix Complex: A Philosophy of Nature (2023) and Time Is a Plant (2023).