IMEU Institute for Middle East Understanding
With a flick of her wrist, Dareen Tatour turned a page in her notebook, smoothed the paper and began reading aloud in a slow, steady cadence. "The charges are like pieces of clothing. They brought me these clothes and forced me to wear them, from my toes to my head," she said, before bursting into excited laughter at the novelty of her work being translated into English.
on June 20, 2016
From 21 – 26 May, the Palestine Festival of Literature toured cities in the West Bank and Israel. In attendance was Jehan Bseiso, a young Palestinian poet. With two anthologies to her name and online publications with ″Electronic Intifada″ and ″The Palestine Chronicle″, Jehan is currently working on a poetry collection called ″Conversations Continued″ – a compilation of real, misheard and misremembered conversations.
on June 13, 2016
Mohammed al-Kurd was something of a child star. When he was 11 years old, Israeli settlers took over part of his family’s home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, sparking protests by Palestinian and Israeli activists. Al-Kurd was the main subject of an award-winning documentary about the episode called "My Neighborhood."
on January 29, 2016
In his new book, Before the Next Bomb Drops: Rising Up from Brooklyn to Palestine, Remi Kanazi writes a poem titled “Sumoud” about a young boy named Ahmed. Ahmed’s father is being held by Israeli under administrative detention, a practice of indefinite incarceration without charge or trial. He is on hunger strike to demand his rights, like many current Palestinian prisoners.
on September 22, 2015
On April 14, 2015, Verso Books will release “Letters to Palestine: Writers Respond to War and Occupation.” In this collection of essays and poems, American authors and Palestinian authors living in America offer their raw, unfiltered reactions to the relentless oppression of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
on March 24, 2015
Literature
While developing his latest poetry collection, the aptly named Textu (text + haiku), Palestinian-American poet and physician Fady Joudah spent a lot of time on his smartphone. This ubiquitous device may seem like the enemy of good art, but Joudah explains his modern methodology in the book’s short introduction.
on December 19, 2014
An author and translator from Palestine are among four literary figures honored in the 2014 King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies Translation of Arabic Literature Award. The award, which is co-sponsored by the King Fahd Center at the University of Arkansas and Syracuse University Press, includes a cash prize for the writers and translators but – perhaps more importantly – publication for the translated titles.
on November 21, 2014
Poetry and prose by Palestinian writers has been celebrated by the organizers of two international literary awards. The longlist for the Sheikh Zayed Prize — an Arabic culture award — features three Palestinian writers. Probably the best-known Palestinian on the longlist is Ghassan Zaqtan, whose poetry collection Like a Straw Bird it Follows Me, translated by Fady Joudeh, won the Griffin Prize in 2013.
on October 21, 2014
Samih al-Qasim, a Palestinian Druze poet known across the Arab world for his nationalist writing, died Tuesday after a long battle with cancer, a family friend said. He was 75.
on August 20, 2014