PalFest 2012 to Be First in Gaza

The 2012 Palestine Festival of Literature (PalFest) is scheduled for May 5-8. For the first time, the festival’s set to take place in Gaza.

A “closing event” will also be held May 9 in Cairo.

The festival, now in its fifth year, brings together Palestinian and international authors for cultural and educational activities. According to organizers, this year’s PalFest “will have a pan Arab focus to celebrate the revolutions sweeping through our world.”

Organizers are now holding fund-raising events to help support the Fest. If you’re in London on March 14, you can attend the fund-raising poetry & music event “This is Jerusalem,” which features poetry from award-winning Najwan Darwish and the music of Basel Zayed. If you miss that, there’s another fund-raising event on the 15th with novelist Selma Dabbagh.

If you’re not in London, you can always contribute online.

Note: I’m not sure in which ways the recent news (Israeli airstrikes, at least 16 dead) will impact the fest’s attempts to get writers into Gaza. For updates from the ground, you can follow this list of tweets from Gaza. PalFest also has an official account, @PalFest.