IMEU Institute for Middle East Understanding
Palestinian Profiles
A lawyer by training, British-Palestinian writer Selma Dabbagh’s short stories have been included in a number of anthologies, including those published by Granta and International PEN. She was also nominated for the International PEN David T.K. Wong Award and the Pushcart Prize. “The power of fiction lies in its ability to humanize the other,” says Dabbagh on her decision to become a writer.
on May 24, 2016
From May 21st to 26th, the annual Palestine Festival of Literature (PalFest) will be held in cities across historic Palestine as international literary stars – including Nobel laureate JM Coetzee, Pulitzer Prize finalist Laila Lalami and National Book Award winners Colum McCann and Barry Lopez – perform free, public events in Ramallah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Haifa and Nablus.
on May 16, 2016
A novel about Palestinian life in occupation and exile by Rabai al-Madhoun has won the ninth $50,000 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF). Destinies: Concerto of the Holocaust and the Nakba, published by Maktabat Kul Shee (Haifa, Palestine), was named the winner by this year’s chair of Judges, Emirati poet and academic Amina Thiban, at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi.
on April 27, 2016
The American writer Ayelet Waldman was on a tour near the Hamra checkpoint, deep inside the Palestinian West Bank, when a silver car with Israeli plates pulled over. The driver, an Israeli Jew, got out and began taking photos of Waldman’s tour group, which included the Austrian author Eva Menasse and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine Brooks, as well as a bevy of photographers and anti-occupation activists.
on April 18, 2016
PEN American Center, which describes itself as “the US branch of the world’s leading international literary and human rights organisation,” has chosen to align, once again, with the government of Israel, one of the world’s most persistent abusers of human rights. It has accepted funding for the annual World Voices Festival from the Israeli embassy as part of the Brand Israel programme...
on April 7, 2016
All is not well in the literary world. That could be true at any moment of any day, sure, but this week has been especially tumultuous. Maybe that’s not accurate, either, because the letter that’s causing headlines (like this one!) was actually sent in March, though it’s only just now been made available to the public.
on April 7, 2016
In a letter made public today over 100 writers, including Pulitzer Prize winners Junot Díaz, Richard Ford, and Alice Walker, and award-winning author Louise Erdrich, have called on the PEN American Center “to reject support from the Embassy of Israel” for PEN’s annual World Voices Festival. The seven-day Festival takes place from April 25 to May 1 in New York City.
on April 5, 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
Palestinian-American Profiles
If you’re a Palestinian and you want to find reasons to be sad, it’s not difficult,” says Zahr. “I believe that no matter who we are, and no matter what sort of situation you’re in, there are at least 5 to 10 funny things that happen to you every day. Or if you’re a Palestinian, it’s more like 50 or 100 things. We live in a surreal universe, and we see a lot of weird stuff.”
on January 21, 2016