Author Jasmin Attia will be in conversation about her new novel, THE OUD PLAYER OF CAIRO, with UNL’s Joy Castro. THE OUD PLAYER OF CAIRO is the compelling story of a young Egyptian woman, Laila, who defies the restrictive traditional roles set for women in the mid-20th century. She follows the path inspired by her musician father, a much-beloved oud player, to become a singer and performer in her own right. Winner of the Nicholas Schaffner Award for Music in Literature, THE OUD PLAYER OF CAIRO is vibrantly descriptive and evocative of the waning colonial world in Egypt.

Jasmin Attia is a graduate of the MFA program at Bennington College. Her writing on Arab Feminist Writers appears in AWP’s The Writer’s Chronicle. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Florida and an MBA from the University of Rochester. Jasmin lives with her family in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and came to writing as a second career. THE OUD PLAYER OF CAIRO is her debut novel.