Description
Head Above Water is a professor's moving account of being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at just eighteen in a conservative Kuwaiti society, drawing from her diary entries and fading memories as the disease advances. "Shahd Alshammari's sensuous prose explores the manipulation of memory, the question of time, and gender politics. We are invited to reconsider the intricacies of love, the body, motherhood, the pervasive power of language, the power of women's education, and the synergy between the Professor and the student."-Jokha Alharthi Omani author of Celestial bodies, winner of the International Man Booker Prize (2019) "Reading Alshammari's work, I thought continually of Yeats's famous line, "a terrible beauty is born." In this book, illness is that terrible beauty, always affecting but never determining the author's life."-Arthur W. Frank, Ph.D. Author of At the Will of the Body and The Wounded Storyteller "An important piece of life writing - Shahd Alshammari's memoir breaks new ground in representing the lives of disabled Arab women. Exploring connections between the body, language, and culture, Alshammari's new memoir is a sensitive and moving invitation to reconsider the stories that we are made of." -Dr. Roxanne Douglas, University of Warwick "A necessary and beautiful account of life with a sometimes-invisible and unpredictable disability, complicated by both patriarchy and racism, as well as a professor's love letter to the act of teaching and being taught."-Marcia Lynx Qualey (@Arablit)
About the Author
Shahd Alshammari is assistant professor of literature and lives with Multiple Sclerosis. After gaining her PhD in the UK, she became an Assistant Professor of Literature in Kuwait. Her research interests focus on women with mental illness in literature. Alshammari is especially interested in the concept of hybridity, having been born to a Bedouin father and a Palestinian mother. She is also interested in Disability Studies and the correlation of disability studies with identity in the Arab world, having been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at the age of 18.
Reviews
"Alshammari's memoir of life with MS is one of the first distinctly 21st century illness narratives. She situates chronic illness at the intersection of issues that include gender, exile, medical experimentation, and the politics of the Middle East...Her story fills with the voices of other women and men she has known, and how illness disrupted their lives." -Arthur W. Frank, Ph.D. Author of At the Will of the Body and The Wounded Storyteller; "An important piece of life writing - Shahd Alshammari's memoir breaks new ground in representing the lives of disabled Arab women. Exploring connections between the body, language, and culture, Alshammari's new memoir is a sensitive and moving invitation to reconsider the stories that we are made of." -Dr. Roxanne Douglas, University of Warwick; "[Alshammari] conveys eloquently and candidly the randomness of her multiple sclerosis, communicating what it's like to live in her body - Arab, female, disabled - and how her illness has shaped her education and her life as an academic Highly engaging." -G.T. Couser, author of Recovering Bodies: Illness, Disability, and Life Writing; "Conversational in tone, yet candid and probing in nature, Head above Water fills a gap in disability narratives by Arab Women...The result is a sanguine memoir, more, on ability rather than disability, on wellness rather than illness." -Dr. Nawar Al-Hassan Golley, author of Reading Arab Women's Autobiographies; "A necessary and beautiful account of life with a sometimes-invisible and unpredictable disability, complicated by both patriarchy and racism, as well as a professor's love letter to the act of teaching and being taught." -Marcia Lynx Qualey, Arab Lit Quarterly; "Shahd Alshammari's sensuous prose explores the manipulation of memory, the question of time, and gender politics. We are invited to reconsider the intricacies of love, the body, motherhood, the pervasive power of language [and] the power of women's education...It is a brave book." -Jokha Alharthi Omani author of Celestial bodies, winner of the International Man Booker Prize (2019); "Beautifully written in an approachable tone. The book offers numerous anecdotes filled with trials and tribulations, historical narratives and childhood dreams, and above all human moments that remind us that wherever we lie on the spectrum of being fully able-bodied human beings or significantly disabled we all share similar fears and more importantly hopes." -Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, writer and lecturer, founder of Barjeel Art Foundation
Awards
Long-listed for The Barbellion Prize 2022 (UK).
Book Information
ISBN 9781911107408
Author Shahd Alshammari
Format Paperback
Page Count 208
Imprint Neem Tree Press Limited
Publisher Neem Tree Press Limited
Chronicling a woman's experience of disability, this achingly brave memoir reminds us of our common humanity and introduces an important new voice.
About the Author
Shahd Alshammari is assistant professor of literature and lives with Multiple Sclerosis. After gaining her PhD in the UK, she became an Assistant Professor of Literature in Kuwait. Her research interests focus on women with mental illness in literature. Alshammari is especially interested in the concept of hybridity, having been born to a Bedouin father and a Palestinian mother. She is also interested in Disability Studies and the correlation of disability studies with identity in the Arab world, having been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at the age of 18.
Reviews
"Alshammari's memoir of life with MS is one of the first distinctly 21st century illness narratives. She situates chronic illness at the intersection of issues that include gender, exile, medical experimentation, and the politics of the Middle East...Her story fills with the voices of other women and men she has known, and how illness disrupted their lives." -Arthur W. Frank, Ph.D. Author of At the Will of the Body and The Wounded Storyteller; "An important piece of life writing - Shahd Alshammari's memoir breaks new ground in representing the lives of disabled Arab women. Exploring connections between the body, language, and culture, Alshammari's new memoir is a sensitive and moving invitation to reconsider the stories that we are made of." -Dr. Roxanne Douglas, University of Warwick; "[Alshammari] conveys eloquently and candidly the randomness of her multiple sclerosis, communicating what it's like to live in her body - Arab, female, disabled - and how her illness has shaped her education and her life as an academic Highly engaging." -G.T. Couser, author of Recovering Bodies: Illness, Disability, and Life Writing; "Conversational in tone, yet candid and probing in nature, Head above Water fills a gap in disability narratives by Arab Women...The result is a sanguine memoir, more, on ability rather than disability, on wellness rather than illness." -Dr. Nawar Al-Hassan Golley, author of Reading Arab Women's Autobiographies; "A necessary and beautiful account of life with a sometimes-invisible and unpredictable disability, complicated by both patriarchy and racism, as well as a professor's love letter to the act of teaching and being taught." -Marcia Lynx Qualey, Arab Lit Quarterly; "Shahd Alshammari's sensuous prose explores the manipulation of memory, the question of time, and gender politics. We are invited to reconsider the intricacies of love, the body, motherhood, the pervasive power of language [and] the power of women's education...It is a brave book." -Jokha Alharthi Omani author of Celestial bodies, winner of the International Man Booker Prize (2019); "Beautifully written in an approachable tone. The book offers numerous anecdotes filled with trials and tribulations, historical narratives and childhood dreams, and above all human moments that remind us that wherever we lie on the spectrum of being fully able-bodied human beings or significantly disabled we all share similar fears and more importantly hopes." -Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, writer and lecturer, founder of Barjeel Art Foundation
Awards
Long-listed for The Barbellion Prize 2022 (UK).
Book Information
ISBN 9781911107408
Author Shahd Alshammari
Format Paperback
Page Count 208
Imprint Neem Tree Press Limited
Publisher Neem Tree Press Limited
