IMEU Institute for Middle East Understanding
Literature
The expanded Summer 2021 issue of World Literature Today foregrounds Palestine Voices in a cover feature showcasing 30 of the most prominent poets and writers from the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and the diaspora, guest-edited by Yousef Khanfar.
on July 1, 2021
Palestinian Profiles
Dr. Farouq Ahmad Zuaiter passed away on February 15, 2018. “Abu Abbas” as he was referred to often was a highly respected financial executive, investment manager and a significant contributor to the economic growth of the Palestinian economy in the face of Israeli occupation.
on February 26, 2018
As a new parent, I’m now alert to a substratum of media that passed below the radar of my younger, less narcissistic, self. In the space of mild leftist parenting, this means acquiring board-book samizdat such as Click Clack Moo (cows striking for workplace benefits), and A Rule is to Break (inculcating anarchist principles in pre-literate children.) Of course, the post-colonial space of this genre (Babar notwithstanding) is pretty unpopulated, so I was excited to spot P is for Palestine by Golbarg Bashi at my local Book Culture.
on December 20, 2017
Literature
The Parachute Paradox, a new book from Palestinian author Steve Sabella, provides a unique insight into the individual pursuit of global citizenship through the author’s life story. Sabella begins in Jerusalem’s Old City, where he was born, and he quickly learns that only his unfettered imagination and bold spirit will enable him to see beyond his identity...
on December 21, 2016
Identical twins who swap identities to keep their double out of jail; an Israeli settler caught in his own razor wire, too proud to allow himself to be helped down by a Palestinian; a little blond girl who defiantly raises her fist at soldiers twice her size—Ben Ehrenreich brings a novelist's touch to anecdotes that are often stranger than fiction in his new book.
on July 6, 2016
Last week Viet Thanh Nguyen, a professional associate of mine, became the fourth winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction to endorse the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS), joining Alice Walker, Richard Ford, and Junot Diaz. Besides the Pulitzer, his novel, “The Sympathizer,” won several other prestigious awards and made it to over 30 book-of-the-year lists, including The Guardian, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.
on June 22, 2016
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
On Jerusalem's busy Salah Eddin Street, where cafes, grocery stores, money exchange centres and jewellery shops proliferate the landscape, a prominent board at number 22 announces itself as the Educational Bookshop. Shortly ahead, across the road, is another bookstore and cafe, also titled the Educational Bookshop.
on May 30, 2016