Palestine in Letters

Announced by the University of Pittsburgh

Since the Nakba, literature has been a vital part of Palestinian culture. The poet Mahmoud Darwish once wrote, “Ours is a country of words: Speak, speak, that we might know an end to this travel.” At first glance, the line might scan like a grim remark on the scale of Palestinian dispossession and erasure, suggesting that other than mere words, little remains of historic Palestine. But Darwish’s imperative—“Speak!”—reminds us that to speak (and write) is to act in the world, and that such action does things and perhaps changes things. Darwish’s words invite—and command—expression, writing, witnessing and imagination, even while admitting to the limitation of mere words. 

This series, hosted by Georgetown University’s Arabic and Islamic Studies and Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, the Sakka Family Foundation, and The D.C. Palestinian Film and Arts Festival brings four leading Palestinian literary voices to Georgetown in order to explore the challenges of literary expression in this era of massive repression. 

Speaker:
Adania Shibli (Palestine, 1974) has written novels, plays, short stories and narrative essays. She has twice been awarded with the Qattan Young Writer’s Award-Palestine, once for her novel Masaas (2001) and in 2003 on her novel Kulluna Ba’id bethat al Miqdar aan el-Hub (Al-Adab, 2004; translated as We Are All Equally Far from Love, Clockroot, 2012). Her latest novel is Tafsil Thanawi (Al-Adab, 2017, translated as Minor Detail, Fitzcarraldo Edition/UK, and New Directions/USA, 2020); shortlisted for the National Book Award in 2020, and in 2021 it was longlisted for the International Booker Prize. Shibli has also been engaged in academic research and teaching at different universities including Birzeit University, Palestine (2012-2018). Currently she’s a co-curator of the Bergen Assembly 2025, Bergen, Norway.