New Video from The Question of Palestine in London

Last week, Palestine Festival of Literature, in partnership with Fitzcarraldo Editions, convened a landmark event at Southbank Centre celebrating the long-overdue republication of Edward Said’s seminal work The Question of Palestine.

Featuring leading thinkers on Palestine, Edward Said, and the question of global solidarity — Jehad Abusalim, Tamim Barghouti, Budour Hassan, Saree Makdisi, Max Porter, Jacqueline Rose, Wadie Said, Avi Shlaim and Ahdaf Soueif — this event explored the urgent legacy of Edward Said, more than twenty years after his death.

The full two-and-a-half hour event is now available to watch on our Youtube channel.

Minneapolis: Upcoming Event with Mizna on December 9

Tickets are now on sale for our first-ever event in Minneapolis on December 9, where we have partnered with Mizna to bring together a dazzling group of writers: Mosab Abu Toha, Sarah Aziza, Nick Estes, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, Dina Omar, Sagirah Shahid, and Danez Smith.

This event promises to be an engaging conversation on Palestine and the solidarity work of the written word, so be sure to get your tickets as soon as possible.

Read Palestine Week: 29 November – 5 December

Read Palestine Week starts today and continues until next Friday. The week kicks off with a twenty-four hour live-streamed reading series, which features readers from around the globe.

On Sunday, December 1, Radical Books Collective will be hosting Isabella Hammad to talk about her recent book Recognizing the Stranger.

Publishers for Palestine has also just released a gorgeous zine titled And Still We Write for Read Palestine Week. Featuring work by Gazan writers from the past year, it is available for free to download here.

The full calendar of events, available here, includes many online events and several in-person events in New York City.

Book of the Week

A remarkable work of witness and translation. These poems, wry and sensual, widen the breach in the heart. Najwan Darwish is a prophet of our hard, exhausted time—the sea his ancient muse, Palestine his Andalus, language his only Paradise.

—Yasmine Seale, translator of The Annotated Arabian Nights

Born in Jerusalem in 1978, Najwan Darwish is one of the most important poets of the Arabic-speaking world. This definitive collection, translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid, draws from five volumes published in Arabic as well as new unpublished work, bringing to English-language readers a sweeping trove of Darwish’s most powerful and urgent poetry of the last decade.

In spare lyric verse, Darwish testifies to the brutal and intimate traumas of war, the anguished fatigue of waking up each morning in an occupied land, and the immeasurable toll of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While anchored in the geography of Palestine, No One Will Know You Tomorrow also explores the rich artistic inheritance of the Arabic-speaking world, moving between regions, landscapes, and eras, from the glories of medieval Granada to the rippling shores of contemporary Haifa. In dialogue with poets, philosophers, and seekers from many different traditions, Darwish’s verse pulses with spiritual longing and a sense of battered, disoriented wonder—a witness to both the atrocities we visit upon one another and the miracle that we are here at all.

No One Will Know You Tomorrow is a tribute to the indomitability of the human spirit: its sensitive attunement to beauty and its endurance in the face of unspeakable tragedy. It is out this week in North America and is available for pre-order in Europe and the UK.

Reading Roundup

Honoring Palestinian Poets in a Time of Genocide – A selection of new and recent poems by National Book Award winner Lena Khallaf Tuffaha and finalist Fady Joudah, on the occasion of the National Book Awards, where both were the only writers who spoke up for Palestine.

On the Enduring Importance of Edward Said’s The Question of Palestine – Alexander Durie discusses the republication of Edward Said’s The Question of Palestine with Said’s children and with the publisher of the new edition.

Israel’s Revenge: An Interview with Rashid Khalidi – Mark O’Connell interviews Rashid Khalidi about the prehistory of the current genocide and the current global solidarity movement, in which Khalidi argues that the United States should be thought of not just as complicit, but as a direct and active participant in the genocide in Gaza.

Grounding the Current Moment: An Al-Shabaka Syllabus – A comprehensive set of resources collected by Al-Shabaka: The Palestine Policy Network for learning about the history of the Palestinian struggle, the historical context of the siege on Gaza, and imaginaries for the future of Palestine.

Fighting Fire with Community: Local Initiatives Rise Up Amidst the Israeli War on Lebanon – Elia El Khazen and Michelle Eid examine how community-led initiatives and mutual aid projects have, in the absence of meaningful state intervention, stepped up to meet the urgent needs of the displaced in Lebanon.

Behind the Veil – A new poem from Gazan poet Tamer Kuhial, translated by Oumeima Mouelhi: “I am the last button on the shirt of oblivion.”

The ‘Ceasefire’ in Lebanon is a Ticking Bomb – Jeremy Scahill and Sharif Abdel Kouddous explicate the ramifications of the so-called ‘ceasefire’ deal between Lebanon and Israel, highlighting that the deal holds Lebanon to different standards than Israel.

And Still We Write – A new zine from Publishers for Palestine featuring work by Palestinian writers, most of whom are from Gaza, as well as a primer on hasbara, BDS, and PACBI.

Beirut War Diary: 8 Days in October – Rima Rantisi writes of the dread and uncertainty that filters into daily life in Beirut amidst Israel’s ongoing bombardment.

Genocide Leaves No Illusions Intact – Yasmeen Daher describes how German state repression of Palestinian solidarity and the undercurrent of fascism it reveals deny the Palestinians a “right to history.”

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