On this episode, we talk with Moudi Sbeity about their new memoir, "Habibi Means Beloved: A Queer Memoir on Stuttering, War, and Belonging," and their new poetry collection "Alhamdulillah Anyway," poems on language, land, and war.
Born into a Muslim family from a small Lebanese village, Moudi Sbeity came of age at the intersection of war, displacement, and difference. Queer, with a stutter, and often on the margins of belonging, Sbeity survived the conflicts that fractured their homeland and family before arriving in Utah as an 18-year-old evacuee. From there, Sbeity transformed anonymity into advocacy as plaintiff in Kitchen v. Herbert, the landmark case that secured marriage equality across the 10th Circuit, and as founder of the celebrated Salt Lake City queer-friendly restaurant Laziz Kitchen. Yet behind these outward triumphs, Moudi Sbeity felt an inner call to return to their roots through writing and poetry.
