Faleeha Hassan joined Penn State Brandywine for a literary reading of her memoir during the annual Literary Festival and Student Open Mic on April 1.
MEDIA, Pa. — Faleeha Hassan joined Penn State Brandywine for a literary reading of her memoir during the annual Literary Festival and Student Open Mic on April 1.
During the event, the Penn in Hand 2025 book was distributed, student authors read their work and winners of this year’s literary and visual arts contests were announced. Aaron Poon won the visual arts open category, Shanice Gayle won the art social impact category, Shianne Vanover won the writing open category and Marianna Pham won the writing social impact category.
The event proves each year to not only be a lot of fun for all those involved but also an excellent opportunity for the campus community to come together in celebration of students’ creative talents.
“The festival is an opportunity for students to celebrate literature, not only their own but their classmates’ and a published writer’s. Students receive recognition for their work, hear fellow students read and see their own work in print,” said Maureen Fielding, associate professor of English and women’s, gender and sexuality studies and faculty adviser to Penn in Hand.
“The festival and literary journal are very important to me because they provide ways for our campus to expose students to well-known authors and encourage Brandywine’s young writers and artists to keep writing and creating art.”
Hassan is an Iraqi writer who has a recently published memoir, "War and Me: A Memoir," about coming of age in a tight-knit working-class family during Iraq’s series of wars. She is an award-winning poet, playwright, teacher and editor.
“In Iraq, it is hard to be a woman who writes. In America, it is hard to be a woman in a hijab,” Hassan said in her memoir. “But if I write and teach and raise myself and other women, maybe equality and acceptance will come. Maybe there can be peace.”
The 27th annual Brandywine Literary Festival and Student Open Mic were sponsored by Penn in Hand, the Center for Social Impact, the Office of Development and Alumni Relations and the Student Initiated Fee.
