OUR BOOKS

Head Above Water

By Shahd Alshammari

PUBLICATION DATE: May 30, 2022

PAPERBACK ISBN: 9781911107408

HARDBACK ISBN: 9781911107392

EBOOK ISBN: 9781911107415

AUDIOBOOK ISBN: 9781911107422

Collection: Neem Tree Press

Head Above Water

By Shahd Alshammari
Cover designed by James Jones

Head Above Water takes us into a space of intimate conversations on illness and society’s stigmatization of disabled bodies. We are invited in to ask the big questions about life, loss, and the place of the other. The narrative builds a bridge that reminds us of our common humanity and weaves the threads that tie us all together. Through conversations about women’s identities, bodies, and our journeys through life, we arrive at a politics of love, survival, and hope.

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“I urge you to read it, you won't regret it and I am sure you will learn something valuable from it.”

Amy Amalia, Goodreads Reviewer

5 minute read

Head Above Water Longlisted for The Barbellion Prize

Head Above Water by Shahd Alshammari has been longlisted for The Barbellion Prize for writing on illness and disability.

A Conversation with Shahd Alshammari: “Reading and Writing Means Learning to Exist in the World with all its Difficulties.”

In her recently released memoir, Head Above Water, which explores ways of living with one’s body and of dealing with illness and disability, Shahd Alshammari reflects on her personal experience of Multiple Sclerosis. In a region where such issues remain under-discussed, Alshammari takes us “into a space of intimate conversations on illness and society’s stigmatization of disabled bodies”.

Between Illness and Exile in “Head Above Water”

Tugrul Mende reviews Head Above Water: Reflections on Illness.

Shahd Alshammari will be at PRIMADONNA FEST 2022

The 2022 Primadonna Festival Lineup, including Shahd Alshammari, author of Head Above Water.

Author Profile – Shahd Alshammari

As a University of Kent Alumna, I studied English Literature with great faculty and scholars of literature. I was inspired by the various scholars I encountered and their research areas. At the same time, I always knew I wanted to write. I started writing poetry, fiction, and finally came to narrative nonfiction.

Shahd Alshammari in Conversation with Mikey Muhanna from Afirkra.

Shahd Alshammari talked about her work as a writer, academic, and researcher in the field of Gulf literature and disability studies with Mikey Muhanna from Afirkra.

‘Head Above Water’ by Shahd Alshammari – Book Review

Head Above Water is not a memoir but a reflection on illness and it doesn’t just focuses on the narrator’s journey but divulges into the stories of some of her students and peers whose lives have been affected by illness.

5 Must Read Memoirs from Disabled Women

In Head Above Water Shahd Alshammari shares her experiences of MS as an Arab woman, confronting the intersection of culture, religion and disability with her personal narrative of illness.

If the Body Could Speak: an Interview with Dr Shahd Alshammari

The Publishing Post interviewed Dr Shahd Alshammari about her book Head Above Water, which was published on World MS Day. In this interview, Shahd tells us about how it feels to give marginalised voices a platform, coming to terms with her early diagnosis of MS and how her writing is opening up conversations about disability

Memoir ‘Head Above Water’ explores multiple sclerosis through the lens of an Arab woman

Kuwaiti-Palestinian writer Shahd Alshammari's new book has been released on World MS Day.

Challenging Narratives on Disability, Womanhood, and Arabness Through Literature: A Memoir from the Gulf

Kuwaiti academic and author Shahd Alshammari reflects on her ground-breaking memoir which challenges the dominant narrative of silence around disability and women’s bodies.

5 minute read

Head Above Water: When illness exiles the mind from the body

Book Club: Assistant professor, academic, and writer Dr Shahd Alshammari talks to The New Arab about her new book, an illness narrative reflecting on living with multiple sclerosis in Kuwait.

Disability Research Forum

“Shahd’s sensuous prose explores the manipulation of memory, the question of time, and gender politics…intricacies of love, …body, motherhood, the pervasive power of language, the power of women’s education, and synergy between Professor and student. It is a brave book.” – Jokha Alharthi, Author of Celestial Bodies, winner of the International Man Booker Prize

The Ideal Woman: How Can Women Embrace Their Womanhood While Being Under The Male Gaze?

Interview with Shahd Alshammari on the Ideal Woman: How Can Women Embrace Their Womanhood While Being Under The Male Gaze?

Disabled people exist everywhere – so why aren’t more books written about us?

Shahd Alshammari could not find role models for disabled Arab women in literature, so she set out to write a book that helped tell her story. She felt a need to correct this gap in literature but she also wanted to see more raw stories about those struggling to fit into societies geared towards the able-bodied.

What is multiple sclerosis? An expert explains

Multiple Sclerosis

A Kuwaiti Professor Makes Disability Awareness Part of Her Teaching

The voices of people with disabilities are too often absent among scholars and researchers, Alshammari told Al-Fanar Media in an interview via Zoom.

Multiple Sclerosis and its Literary Representation: A Talk with Reema Humood

“As a disabled female academic living with (and researching) MS, I sat down with the author to discuss her novel’s gendered elements of disability. In particular, I wanted to know more about her position as abled-bodied author and her choice of MS as the protagonist’s disease.”

‘Disability differs when you are an Arab’: Shifting obsolete notions of disability within the Arab world

Disability rights in MENA: Raya al-Jadir, co-founder of disability lifestyle magazine Disability Horizons elaborates on the archaic perception of the disabled within in the Arab World, and what needs to change to encourage a more inclusive future.

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