Batool Abu Akleen is an award-winning Palestinian poet and painter. One of the top students at IUG in Gaza, she was displaced in October 2023, but continues writing and sharing her work. She was recently named Modern Poetry in Translation’s “poet in residence.”
Samer Abu Hawash (@samerabuhawash) is a Palestinian writer and translator.
Heba Al-Agha is a mother, amateur writer, and creative writing educator at the A.M. Qattan Foundation in Gaza City. She does not belong to any writers’ unions and has not published any literary books, but works with an army of writers, training them in freedom and the power of writing. She writes at t.me/hebalaghatalkwar and https://gazastory.com/archives/author/hebaaga
Mahmoud Alshaer is an editor, curator, and poet who, until October 2023, was deeply involved in cultural work in Gaza, leading initiatives such as Majalla 28 and Gallery 28 and coordinating the cultural program at Al Ghussein Cultural House in Gaza’s old city.
Julia Choucair Vizoso is an independent scholar and seasonal translator. She hopes Heba Al-Agha’s words move you to refuse and resist the Israel-US genocide of the Palestinian people and destruction of Lebanon, wherever and however you can.
Asmaa Dwaima is a Palestinian writer, poet, artist, and dentist. After being displaced multiple times since October 2023, she currently shelters with her family in southern Gaza. Her creative work delves into themes of loss, resilience, and identity, capturing the enduring strength of the Palestinian people. She is committed to preserving their stories and humanity amid ongoing conflict.
Basman Eldirawi (also published as Basman Derawi) is a physiotherapist and a graduate of Al-Azhar University in Gaza in 2010. Inspired by an interest in music, movies, and people with special needs, he contributes dozens of stories to the online platform We Are Not Numbers.
Huda Fakhreddine is a translator and Associate Professor of Arabic Literature
at the University of Pennsylvania.
Esam Hajjaj is an inspiring soul from Gaza who illuminates lives with his strong spirit and profound wisdom about love, life, and resistance. In light of the current assault on Gaza, Esam and his family have lost their home, joining many others who have been affected by the ongoing aggression on the Gaza Strip and have become displaced. He writes at https://witness-from-gaza.com/
Omar Ibrahim is an Egyptian literary translator, poet and essayist. He translated Mahmoud Morsi’s poetry collection It’s Time I Confess into English, and his Arabic translation of H. P. Lovecraft’s novella The Whisper in Darkness was on the best seller lists of many bookstores. He has also published his own poetry collection, titled Fragments of My Mind, and two upcoming translations.
Doha Kahlout is a poet, and teacher from Gaza. Her first collection of poems, Ashbah (“Similarities”), was published in 2018. She was selected for a residency at Reid Hall in Paris as part of the Displaced Artists Initiative, co-sponsored by the Columbia Global Center and the Institute for Ideas and Imagination, but has not been able to take up her place since the Israeli invasion of Rafah and the closure of its border crossing in May 2024.
Mariam Mohammed Al Khateeb is a dentistry student, poet, oud player, translator, and community activist in her local community. She was a participant in the Hult Prize, an annual competition for ideas addressing pressing social issues, such as food security, water access, energy, and education. She works as a writer and makes videos, producing content about Palestine.
Husam Maarouf is a poet from Gaza. He has published two poetry collections, Death Smells Like Glassand The Barber Loyal To His Dead Clients, as well as the novel Ram’s Chisel.
Nasser Rabah is a poet and novelist from Gaza. He has published five poetry collections and two novels. In English, his work has been featured in publications such as The New Yorker, Words Without Borders, Literary Hub, ArabLit, Michigan Quarterly Review, O Bod, and Poetry International. A new collection of his selected poetry will be published as an English translation by City Lights in Spring 2025, along with two collections in Spanish. He is a 2024 JeanJacques Rousseau fellow at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Germany.
Nour Nemer is a Palestinian literary translator and former student of Dr. Refaat Alareer. Passionate about storytelling, she dedicates her work to bridging languages and cultures, powerfully sharing the story of the Palestinian people with the world.
Wiam El-Tamami (wiameltamami.com) is an Egyptian writer, translator, editor, and wanderer. Her writing and translation work has been featured in publications such as Granta, Ploughshares, Freeman’s, AGNI, CRAFT, ArabLit, and Jadaliyya, and is forthcoming in The Massachusetts Review and The Common. It has also been published in several anthologies. She won the 2011 Harvill Secker Translation Prize, was a finalist for the 2023 Disquiet International Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2024 First Pages Prize. Her work has also received a Pushcart Prize nomination in 2024. She is currently based in Berlin.
Mohammad al-Zaqzouq is a writer, researcher, and editor, born in Khan Younis in 1990. He studied Arabic language and literature at Al-Aqsa University and is a contributor to various Palestinian and Arab platforms. Mohammed is an active member in literary and cultural organizations shaping Gaza’s cultural landscape and the former general coordinator of the “Utopia for Knowledge” assembly. Currently, he coordinates community library and youth teams at the Tamer Foundation for Community Education. His poetry collection The Soothsayers of Khanun won the Khalili Poetry Award at the First Palestinian Cultural Forum for Creative Writers in 2018.
Andaleeb Cartonera 