In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, memoirist Lamisse Hamouda chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting The Shape of Dust. Lamisse co-authored this deeply disturbing account with her father Hazem Hamouda. It chronicles Hazem’s wrongful arrest in Egypt and Lamisse’s desperate 443-day struggle to free him from Tora, one of Egypt’s most notorious prisons. The Shape of Dust won the 2024 National Biography Award.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
- The meaning of the book’s title The Shape of Dust
- Why Lamisse and Hazem decided to craft The Shape of Dust when it risked triggering the horrific trauma of their experiences
- Why Lamisse framed the story around trauma
- How Lamisse navigated multiple languages, cultures and worlds while crafting The Shape of Dust
- Why Lamisse structured the book in three parts, with Part One comprising first-person accounts of what happened day by day, with Lamisse and Hazem taking it in turns to narrate their experiences
- Lamisse’s literary choices to reduce the terror and brutality of Hazem’s experiences for them as the authors and their readers
- Lamisse’s ethical decisions on which aspects of Hazem’s story to share
- The extent to which Lamisse self-censored her commentary about Egyptian and Australian politics; Australia’s consular services in Egypt; and Australian journalists
- How writing The Shape of Dust has changed Lamisse’s perception of colonisation and systemic racism in Australia.
