Award-winning author to speak
Author Omar El Akkad, who won the 2025 National Book Award for “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This,” will speak Wednesday, April 8, at Linfield University.
The free program is sponsored by both the university and the McMinnville Public Library. The discussion and book signing will last from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Nicholson Library on the Linfield campus.
“One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This” examines American and European responses to the devastation in Gaza during the war between Israel and Hamas.
El Akkad also has twice won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers’ Award and the Oregon Book Award. His debut novel, “American War,” has been called “one of 100 novels that shaped our world” by the BBC.
The author will be joined during the book discussion by Linfield staff members Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, professor of English and director of critical ethnic studies, and Rachel Norman, chair and associate professor of English. They will discuss media, power and moral responsibility, among other themes.
Dutt-Ballerstadt said the time is right for such a discussion. “So many citizens and non-citizens in this country and globally are so afraid to speak up against various state-imposed violence and prosecutions,” she said.
That makes it especially important “to have conversations in our public and private spaces about what it means to be human and have empathy for others before it is too late,” she said.
For more information, visit the university’s online calendar listing.
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