Two Cat Stories from Gaza
These two stories both come from Palestinian writer and psychologist Dr. Hassan Al-Qatrawi. Hunger’s Siege on Gaza By Dr. Hassan Al-Qatrawi Translated by Munira El Najar Two hours of persistent […]
Gaza
On Ansam Abu Sitta’s ‘Bench of the Reserves’
As part of an initiative by Alaan Publishers to publish the works of 12 Gazan writers, Ansam Abu Sitta’s دكة الاحتياط (Bench of the Reserves), published in Arabic in 2026, is a collection of 18 short stories that move between realism and highly condensed symbolism.
Texts After the Screaming
Nour Balousha wrote these two poems “after I stopped screaming, not because it ended, but because I grew too exhausted to keep screaming.”
Ramadan Kareem, ya Gaza
“Gaza does not resemble herself in Ramadan.”
From ‘My Butterfly That Does Not Die’
Refaat Al Areer had set the scene, declaring, “If I must die,” and Alaa Al Qatarawi’s sorrow metamorphosed into a butterfly that perseveres. She writes, “If I die, my butterfly does not die.”
‘A New Year in Gaza’: By Ibrahim Nasrallah
The people named in this poem are the writers, painters, and musicians martyred in the genocide. They are only a few of the many artists who were martyred in the past two years of war against Gaza.
‘What have I survived’: New Poetry by Mahmoud Alshaer
“I survived—came out of yesterday / alive, carried out on the shoulders / of the wind.”
Books as Breath: Gaza’s Living Story
Salah and Abdullah’s small bookshop in Nuseirat is a testament to the power of literature. A model of Palestinian endurance.
Shrinking Language, Bursting Memory
“Under siege, time is stolen piece by piece, and language shrinks to match the narrow space it is allowed. People abandon long sentences because every additional word must justify the power it consumes, the battery it drains, the risk it takes in that particular minute.”