‘Gaza, the Game the Elephant Swallows Every Time’
Writer Husam Maarouf returns to Deir al-Balah in what feels like the same displacement and return he experienced only months ago.
Nonfiction
Inji Efflatoun’s ‘A Meeting at the Prosecutor’s Office’
This book was the subject of a recent episode of the BULAQ podcast; today, with permission, we bring you a section from the memoir soon after Inji Efflatoun meets her beloved husband Hamdi, who she was originally wary of — since he was a public prosecutor — although she is reassured he is actually “a committed Marxist.”
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.
‘Even Flowers Die Softly’
This month, Maamoul Press publishes a new zine by young Gazan creators Jehad Abu Dayya and Esraa el-Banna: The Final Scene.
I Want a Room, God. Do You Hear Me?
“Even writing, even a warm home—I am afraid of losing them at any moment, of becoming homeless again, of searching for a language that resembles me.”
Isn’t It Our Time to Take a Break from Death?
While gasping for breath, I write. While my heart is panting, I count all my organs. Who will delete this wound from memory? Who will draw the hardships from my heart? Who will calm it?
‘Prison in a Burning Tank’
“These are the worst days. I don’t know why I’ve been using superlatives so much lately, or saying “for the first time,” as though my mind were instantly classifying every experience against prior facts or illusions. Perhaps it would be enough to say they’re terrible days, without comparing them to other dark ones.”
How Do I Leave the Prison of Gaza?
“The world is small,” they say. But Gaza taught me that the world is too big to be shaken by the small tragedies that happen here. Too big to care about a starving human being who only dreams of crossing a crossing.