Writing Gaza
This is a past event and is no longer available for booking - please head to our What's On page for our current programme
Writing Gaza
Mahmoud Muna, Atef Alshaer, Elizabeth Briggs, Matthew Teller & Donald Macintyre
Join us for a powerful panel event with writers and publishers whose work centres Gaza: its people, its history and its stories.
The panel will discuss how their roles intersect in their commitment to the amplification of Palestinian voices through the written word; how crucial this work is as well as the difficulties that come with writing, publishing, reporting and championing these stories.
Joining the panel via livestream will be Mahmoud Muna and Matthew Teller, editors of Daybreak in Gaza: a vivid anthology of Palestinian life, heritage and culture told through the everyday stories of the people of Gaza.
Atef Alshaer is a Palestinian lecturer in Arabic Studies and an author who will talk about his latest work which celebrates classic and contemporary poetry and prose by Palestinian writers.
Journalist and author Donald Macintyre will discuss his role reporting from Jerusalem and his writings on the real story of Gaza, the failings of the international community and the hope for future peace.
Elizabeth Briggs will talk about her role as Editorial Director of Saqi Books – who publish work on the Middle East and North Africa that challenges dominant narratives and fosters cultural understanding.
This panel will be chaired by journalist and author Stefan Stern.
[Note: Pankaj Mishra is unfortunately no longer able to attend this event as previously advertised for Life after Gaza].
‘Read this. It is brutal with human pain and still, beauty, and life. Defiant life. Resistance. And, bitterly, the injustice of it all. You cannot walk away from Daybreak in Gaza unchanged. It will break your heart; but our hearts need to be broken.’
Harare Review of Books
Please note: this event was previously advertised as Writing Gaza with Pankaj Mishra who unfortunately is now no longer able to attend.
Under-30s tickets : £12.50
This event is sponsored by Marcus Beale Architects.
About the Authors
Donald Macintyre was the Independent’s Jerusalem bureau chief for eight years between 2004 and 2012, and before that its political editor and chief political commentator. He is a former presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Week in Westminster and author of Gaza: Preparing for Dawn in which he lays bare Gaza’s human tragedy and looks at the failings that have prevented peace, whilst still reflecting the Palestinians’ continued hope for a better future. He was awarded Next Century Foundation’s Peace Through Media Award in 2011 for his reporting.
Elizabeth Briggs is Publishing Director at Saqi Books. Working in the publishing industry for the last decade, her experience spans agenting and the non-for-profit literary sector alongside seven cherished years at Saqi. She has collaborated with some of the industry’s most prominent voices and regularly participates in events, including recent roundtables at the House of Lords and LSE regarding Palestinian art and culture. She is a trustee of the international arts and cultural festival Shubbak.
Mahmoud Muna is a writer, publisher and bookseller from Jerusalem, Palestine. He runs Jerusalem’s celebrated Educational Bookshop and the Bookshop at the American Colony Hotel, both centres of the city’s literary scene. He is active in many cultural initiatives across Palestine and writes regularly on culture and politics, with bylines in the London Review of Books and Jerusalem Quarterly, among others. He recently published the first-ever Arabic edition of the literary magazine Granta.
Matthew Teller is an author, travel writer and documentary-maker. He has covered the Middle East for outlets such as the BBC, Guardian, Independent, Times, and Financial Times. He presents and produces documentaries for BBC Radio including Radio 4’s Costing the Earth and has written several books, including Nine Quarters of Jerusalem which was the Observer‘s ‘Book of the Week’ and a ‘Book of the Year’ in the Daily Telegraph, Geographical magazine and elsewhere.
Atef Alshaer is a lecturer in Arabic Studies at the University of Westminster. He was educated at Birzeit University in Palestine and SOAS where he obtained his PhD and taught for a number of years. He is the author of several publications in the fields of language, literature and politics, including Poetry and Politics in the Modern Arab World, The Hizbullah Phenomenon, Love and Poetry in the Middle East (editor) and Language and National Identity in Palestine, both forthcoming. Alshaer regularly contributes to the BBC, Independent, I-Newspaper, Electronic Intifada and Radio Monocle.