Poems reflecting the tribulations faced by a Sudanese refugee adapting to pandemic life in Pittsburgh are the topic of the Cranberry Public Library’s next speaker event on Tuesday, March 12 at 6 p.m.

The library will host Rania Mamoun, a Sudanese journalist, activist and City of Asylum writer in residence. The event will feature a reading of her new collection of poetry, “Something Evergreen Called Life.”

After years of writing and organizing against the regime of Omar al-Bashir, Mamoun Mamoun was forced to leave her country with her young daughters, taking refuge in Pittsburgh in the early throes of the pandemic.

Confined to her new home, Rania embarked on a daily practice of writing, out of which emerged these poems of loss, despair and hope.

Mamoun won a 2010 International Prize for Arabic Fiction Nadwa participant, Rania has published two novels in Arabic, “Flash Akhdar” (Green Flash) and “Ibn-al-Shams” (Son of the Sun).

She is the author of the short story collection “13 Sharen Min Isharaq al Shams” (13 Months of Sunrise), which was translated to English by Elisabeth Jaquette and shortlisted for the 2020 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.

The City of Asylum Exiled Writer and Artist Residency Program is a long-term residency for writers and other artists who are in exile from their home countries and under threat of persecution because of their work. The goal of this sanctuary program is to enable each writer and artist in residence to continue to create while transitioning to a stable, independent life in exile.

The event is free with registration required by visiting cranberry.librarycalendar.com or calling 724-776-9100.