Virtual Event – Laila Lalami

Magic City Books is proud to welcome Laila Lalami, author of the new book Conditional Citizens for a virtual author event on October 12, 2020. In this starkly illuminating and impassioned book, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Laila Lalami recounts her unlikely journey from Moroccan immigrant to U.S. citizen, using it as a starting point for her exploration of the rights, liberties, and protections that are traditionally associated with American citizenship. Tapping into history, politics, and literature, she elucidates how accidents of birth–such as national origin, race, or gender–that once determined the boundaries of Americanness still cast their shadows today. 

Laila Lalami will be joined by Roxane Gay, author of the essay collection Bad Feminist and the memoir, Hunger. This free event will be hosted on the Zoom platform. To register in advance visit: https://magiccitybooks.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_V8H4H1U2Rk2zL-7HfHycgw

After registering, you will receive an email confirmation with details about how to join the event on Monday, October 12 at 7:00 CDT.

Conditional Citizens will be published by Pantheon Books on September 22. You can reserve a copy at Magic City Books or pre-order a copy here: https://magiccitybooks.square.site/product/conditional-citizens/212

About Conditional Citizens

What does it mean to be American? In this starkly illuminating and impassioned book, Pulitzer Prize—finalist Laila Lalami recounts her unlikely journey from Moroccan immigrant to U.S. citizen, using it as a starting point for her exploration of the rights, liberties, and protections that are traditionally associated with American citizenship.

Tapping into history, politics, and literature, she elucidates how accidents of birth–such as national origin, race, and gender–that once determined the boundaries of Americanness still their shadows today.

Lalami poignantly illustrates how white supremacy survives through adaptation and legislation, with the result that a caste system is maintained that keeps the modern equivalent of white male landowners at the top of the social hierarchy. Conditional citizens, she argues, are all the people with whom America embraces with one arm and pushes away with the other.

Brilliantly argued and deeply personal, Conditional Citizens weaves together Lalami’s own experiences with explorations of the place of nonwhites in the broader American culture.

LAILA LALAMI was born in Rabat and educated in Morocco, Great Britain, and the United States. She the author of four novels, including The Moor’s Account, which won the American Book Award, the Arab-American Book Award, and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Her most recent work, The Other Americans, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, Harper’s, The Guardian, and The New York Times. Lalami is a professor of creative writing at the University of California at Riverside. She lives in Los Angeles.