From Saga Hamdan’s ‘Red Light’
This is part of a longer story, “Maryam,” (2022) by Palestinian author Saga Hamdan.
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Posts by Marcia Lynx Qualey:
2026 Neustadt Prize to Ibrahim Nasrallah
Yesterday evening, organizers announced the great Palestinian novelist and poet Ibrahim Nasrallah as the 29th laureate of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature.
Ziad Rahbani: Son by Choice, Father Despite Himself, Youthful Forever
Nael Eltoukhy remembers his relationship with the life, music, and legacy of Zaid Rahbani.
‘Reaching Heba in My Dreams’
It was October 20, 2023 when poet, novelist, and educator Heba Abu Nada was killed by an Israeli airstrike. She was 32. Here, her sister Somaia strings together time, place, and memory.
‘Shadows of My Fate’: Two Poems by Samar Al Ghussein
These two poems are by Samar Al-Ghussein, a young Palestinian writer from Gaza who is at work on her first collection.
Wilding Language: Salim Barakat Between a Kurdish Heart and an Arabic Voice
In this “BETWEEN TWO ARABIC TRANSLATORS” conversation, Yasmeen Hanoosh and Mahmoud Hosny Roshdy discuss the idea of untranslatability (and perhaps, by extension, unreadability) and the work Salim Barakat, and why, if a translation were complete and perfect, this might mean that the work was born dead.
Two Prize-winning Palestinian Authors Freed from Israeli Prisons
Two award-winning Palestinian authors serving life sentences in Israeli prisons were released on October 13 as part of the exchange for Israeli captives held in Gaza.
Ibrahim Nasrallah’s ‘The Birds of Ala’ Al-Najjar’
On Friday morning, the 23rd of May 2025, while Ala’ Al-Najjar, a Palestinian pediatrician at Al-Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in the Southern Gaza Strip, was treating the wounds of the injured children of the genocidal Israeli war, she received the news of martyrdom of her nine children: Yahia, Rakan, Raslan, Jubran, Eve, Revan, Sadeen, Luqman, and Sidra. Her eldest child was twelve years old, whereas her youngest was only a six-months old baby. Nine days later, her husband, Dr. Hamdi Al-Najjar, joined his children due to his serious wounds. Ala’ has only one child left alive. This poem is written for her.
‘A City Beyond History’: New Poetry by Doha Kahlout
“Press your body to the sea— / it comes out cool, unharmed— / and let tears move across your hidden grief.”