The PalFest Podcast

The Palestine Festival of Literature
  • 5.0 (21)
  • Books
  • Updated Biweekly

Welcome to the first podcast from the Palestine Festival of Literature – a format we’ve been wanting to bring to you for a long time.  The PalFest Podcast will highlight new books from and about Palestine, bringing writers together in conversation across borders to discuss new ideas and dig into vital histories.  Each episode will feature a different pairing of writers, presented by our co-hosts Beesan Ramadan and Mirza Waheed who, together, will guide us through these unique, essential conversations.

  1. 3d ago

    On introducing Edward Said: Isabella Hammad and Hisham Matar

    Edward Said needs no introductions, but what happens when writers are asked to newly introduce the works that helped define his legacy? In this episode Isabella Hammad, who writes the introduction to a new edition of Said’s “Representations of the Intellectual,” and Hisham Matar, who does the same for his memoir “Out of Place”, discuss Said’s work and their own takes on many of the questions he thought about: the category of “the intellectual,” the particular modes of thinking and being that writing fiction demands, self-making in exile, and late style. Isabella Hammad is the award-winning author of Enter Ghost, The Parisian, and Recognizing the Stranger. Hisham Matar is the author of multiple novels including In the Country of Men, Anatomy of a Disappearance, My Friends, and the Pulitzer prize winning memoir, The Return. Edward Said was a professor of literature at Columbia University as well as a public writer and political advocate for Palestinian liberation. He is the author of multiple works on culture and empire including Orientalism, Covering Islam, The Question of Palestine, and Culture and Imperialism. He is considered a founding figure of post-colonial studies. This episode was recorded in New York at Young Atlas, Harlem, on April 3rd, 2026 --- Check out the latest PalFest digital publication The Key here Subscribe to the PalFest Bookshelf here Find us on our website or our socials: Insta: @palfest Bluesky: @palfest.bsky.social YouTube: @Palfest

    57 min

  2. May 17

    Tareq Baconi and Saleem Haddad in conversation - Live from Ibraaz

    How do different forms of writing explore ideas that come from our personal and political histories? In Episode 16 of the PalFest podcast, Tareq Baconi and Saleem Haddad discuss their new books – Haddad’s novel Floodlines and Baconi’s memoir Fire in Every Direction – with their questions of family, exile, return, and the possibilities of art.   This episode was recorded at Ibraaz in London on February 11th, 2026. --- Check out The Key here Find us on our website or our socials: Insta: @palfest Bluesky: @palfest.bsky.social YouTube: @Palfest

    1h 42m

  3. May 3

    Something About Living: Lena Khalaf Tuffaha with So Meyer

    On this episode of the PalFest podcast, we mark the launch of the UK edition of Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s Something About Living, published by the 87 Press, at the London Review Bookshop. Lena Khalaf Tuffaha is one of the most influential Palestinian poets working in English today. Her collections have won multiple prizes and her poems have been published across the spectrum of poetry magazines. So Mayer is a writer, editor, bookseller, organiser and film curator. Their most recent book is Bad Language, published by Peninsula Press in 2025, a memoir and manifesto on language and power. Thanks to the LRB Bookshop for the event and the recording. This episode was recorded in London on March 16th, 2026. --- Check out the latest PalFest digital publication The Key here Subscribe to the PalFest Bookshelf here Find us on our website or our socials: Insta: @palfest Bluesky: @palfest.bsky.social YouTube: @Palfest

    1h 11m

  4. Apr 19

    The Selected Plays of Ismail Khalidi - Live from New York

    We marked the publication of Ismail Khalidi’s SELECTED PLAYS with this special live event in New York recorded with the playwright and a selection of his special guests.  Tune in to hear excerpts from three of Khalidi’s plays, performed by Khalidi himself, Hind Shoufani, John Early, Ahmed Maher, Leta Levy and an introductory talk with Isabella Hammad.  It was a unique, one off event hosted by Giorno Poetry Systems and co-organized with the Center for Palestine Studies and we’re glad to have been able to capture it and publish it now for you here.  Thanks to Em from Joseph Joseph Studio Brooklyn for filming. Find the full video on our YouTube page.   This episode was recorded in New York on March 3rd, 2018 --- To watch the show, head to our YouTube channel For more information on the event, visit our website --- Check out the latest PalFest digital publication The Key here Subscribe to the PalFest Bookshelf here Find us on our website or our socials: Insta: @palfest Bluesky: @palfest.bsky.social YouTube: @Palfest --- 00:00 - 00:34 - Intro 00:34 - 01:30 - Isabella Hammad; greeting 01:30 - 02:53 - Ismail Kahlidi; introduction 02:53 - 05:05 - Dead are my People; introduction 05:05 - 11:03 - Dead are my People; Act 2, Scene 1 11:03 - 13:32 - Sabra Falling; introduction 13:32 - 26:17 - Sabra Falling; Act 1, Scene 2 26:17 - 28:14 - Final Status; introduction 28:14 - 47:30 - Final Status; Act 1, Scene 3 47:30 - 48:26 - Curtain Call 48:26 - 49:42 - Isabella Hammad; questions intro 49:42 - 82:02 - Isabella Hammad and Ismail Khalidi; questions

    1h 22m

  5. Apr 2

    Molly Crabapple in conversation with Sara Yasin on "Here Where We Live Is Our Country"

    In 2015 Molly Crabapple attended the Palestine Festival of Literature in Palestine. When she returned home she began excavating her family’s history and her great-grandfather’s involvement with the Jewish Bund - a secular, socialist, uncompromisingly anti-Zionist revolutionary movement that reached its zenith in inter-war Europe. Now, eleven years later, she has written HERE WHERE WE LIVE IS OUR COUNTRY, a popular history of the Jewish movement that refused Zionism’s call to colonize and subjugate, and insisted that Here Where We Live Is Our Country. We sat down with Molly for the PalFest Podcast ahead of its publication. This episode was recorded in New York on March 18th, 2026. --- Check out the latest PalFest digital publication The Key here Subscribe to the PalFest Bookshelf here Find us on our website or our socials: Insta: @palfest Bluesky: @palfest.bsky.social YouTube: @Palfest

    59 min

  6. Mar 23

    Alaa Abd el-Fattah in conversation with Farah Barqawi

    In this episode of the PalFest Podcast we have the writer and political theorist, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, in his first extended conversation since being released from prison in Egypt, with the poet and performer, Farah Barqawi.  In this wide-ranging conversation the two friends discuss shared memories of Gaza, where Farah’s family is from and where Alaa visited with PalFest in 2012, distance and alienation, personal crises and more. It’s a heartfelt, personal talk between two people who have not seen each other for many years and whose lives are among the millions upended by the ongoing colonial assault on the region. This episode was recorded between London and New York on March 2nd, 2026. --- Check out the new PalFest online publication The Key here Subscribe to the PalFest Bookshelf here Find us on our website or our socials: Insta: @palfest Bluesky: @palfest.bsky.social YouTube: @Palfest

    1h 29m

  7. Mar 9

    Lina Mounzer and Jehan Bseiso on Writing through Crisis

    Episode 11 of the PalFest Podcast: Lina Mounzer, writer, translator and Senior Editor at The Markaz Review in conversation with Jehan Bseiso, poet, translator, aid worker and member of the PalFest organising committee. In this conversation the two writers discuss the unspeakable versus the unsaid, the emptiness of the word 'ceasefire' and pathways out of cynicism as well as sharing readings of their work and a new Agony Aunt for the Third World column. This episode was recorded between Beirut and Cairo on February 23rd, 2026. --- Send your questions to Lina's advice column at dearsouseh@themarkaz.org Palestine and the Unspeakable & A Year Without End from The Markaz Review --- Check out the new PalFest online publication The Key here Subscribe to the PalFest Bookshelf here Find us on our website or our socials: Insta: @palfest Bluesky: @palfest.bsky.social YouTube: @Palfest Sign up on Patreon for more content in the future

    1h 15m

  8. Feb 23

    Mahmoud al-Shaer in conversation with Beesan Ramadan & Mirza Waheed

    Episode 10 of the PalFest Podcast: in conversation with Mahmoud al-Shaer, editor, curator and poet.  Mahmoud has long been a key figure in the literary scene in Gaza - a scene that Israel has all but destroyed. He founded a cultural centre in Rafah and the online literary magazine, Magazine 28. He was PalFest's co-producer in Gaza in 2023.  During the genocide many thousands of people got to know Mahmoud through his writings, the painful chronicle of his family's separation, the brutal ordeal of survival under genocidal siege. Much of those writings have now been collected into A Year on the Abyss of Genocide (Arp Books). Mahmoud was finally able to get evacuated from Gaza to Spain, where our hosts Beesan and Waheed talked to him.   This episode was recorded between Madrid, Ramallah and London on February 17th, 2026. --- Watch the PalFest poetry event curated and introduced by Mahmoud in 2023 here. Purchase A Year on the Abyss of Genocide as part of the October/November Bookshelf Bundle here. --- Subscribe to the PalFest Bookshelf here Find us on our website or our socials: Insta: @palfest Bluesky: @palfest.bsky.social YouTube: @Palfest Sign up on Patreon for more content in the future --- Credit to Meqdad.J on Soundcloud for the use of مراجيح | بصوت الشهيدة فاطمة حسونة (Swings - Sung by the Martyr Fatima Hassouna)

    1 hr
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5
out of 5
21 Ratings

About

Welcome to the first podcast from the Palestine Festival of Literature – a format we’ve been wanting to bring to you for a long time.  The PalFest Podcast will highlight new books from and about Palestine, bringing writers together in conversation across borders to discuss new ideas and dig into vital histories.  Each episode will feature a different pairing of writers, presented by our co-hosts Beesan Ramadan and Mirza Waheed who, together, will guide us through these unique, essential conversations.

Information

  • Creator
    The Palestine Festival of Literature
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    17
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    The PalFest Podcast

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