Palestine's Literary Voice

A look at the literature of Palestine and the way it shows daily life within the political big picture.

The Palestinian Territories offer a huge wealth of literature, which expresses realities in a way unseen by journalism. Much of the literature focuses on the daily lives and the wishes of the Palestinians.

In line with much of the Middle East, the Palestinians have a rich heritage of poetry. Historically, poetry, was performed orally and has a music of its own. It is still, perhaps, a little clumsy sitting on paper. Read out loud, the poetry comes alive. Victims of a Mapis a short anthology of Palestinian poets, including Mahmoud Darwish, some of whose poetry is published in this collection in book form for the first time.

As with Palestinian poetry, novels are also often a vehicle for political activism. Mourid Barghouti, in I Saw Ramallahwrites about the displaced youth in Palestine and their daily confrontation with politics.

Photo courtesy:James Emery