Refaat AlareerIf I Must Die: Poetry and ProseEd. Yousef M. AljamalOR Books, 2024 (see WLT, Dec. 2023)The renowned poet and literature professor Refaat…
SPECIAL SECTION
Gaza Voices
For my student Abdel Salam Qatoush, an eight-year-old boy who lost his leg when his home was struck by a bomb during the war on Gaza Leaning back against the tree,I drifted…
Dreaming of a clear sky, unmarred by airplanes.Of clouds observing their own reflection in the windows’ tears.An innocent day: no news of dead friends in the mail.Of a home, and a guest, and a sun tha…
Good morning, World,I’m there — I mean, I’m here,yes, that’s right, in Gaza!A moment ago I was screaming under ash and rubble —A final missile sent me vaulting up your wayand now I’ll inform you of wh…
Photo by Loay Ayyoub Stuck. My feet are trapped in the mud. It spread across the camp’s grounds after the frigid night. Generous rains soaked the tents of the displaced, sinking them in shallow wat…
Photo by Mohamad Masri A writer and his family become part of the modern saga of displacement and find themselves among a menagerie of companions.As we left the house, our panting was so l…
I’m made to drink from the strumming of autumninebriatedand so I seethe sorrow of housesthe ashes of Gazathe triangle of our loveI see it, they wronged ita living nightmareand so I praythe prayer of d…
Gaza and Other ThingsThe night sky is a copper-orange sphere.Is this Gaza?Or a newly discovered planet — wilder, untamed?My imagination, once pure, now runs rampant. I let it wander through corridors…
Photo by Fadi Thabet On Refugee Street, one chances upon countless people who are driven temporarily into insanity.And the narrator described her as a wilted rose. I met her by chance on R…
Photo by Abed Rahman What does death taste like? A story written under fire . . .The moon was absent, and the sun sat high in the dome of the sky, ruling the land and everything on it. It…
O Genocide,Wear my clothes,Take my formAnd my desires.Take my flat feetAnd my limping walk.Live my love storiesAnd my shyness.Befriend thoseWithout enough timeAnd attach to them deeplyWake early, as I…
If you were mine,In tears, I shall bloomIn fears, I must resistTraitors would be faithfulIf you were mine,Within the lost fields of timewould I bloom?With fear of losing timeMy sin will descend from d…
Photo by Mohamad Masri He was standing stiffly in the middle of one of the hospital’s rooms and looked like a small saint who had walked out of battle, with a miserable face and eyes that had lost…
Photo by Abdel Hakeem After seeking safety in Cairo, relentless questions remain: Is there a return? Will hunger haunt my children again?The journey of survival was never ordinary—it was a…
On a pale coldwinter’s nightthe tents sleepbitter in mouthand heart.With subdued soundrunning after an escaping sun,they remove their morning dressoff bodiespatched with jokesand painful laughter.The…
Photo by Emad Nassar A writer living in Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza faces great loss with no way to say goodbye.When writing about Gaza, one must purify the pen seven times, one time with…
Photo by Yousef Khanfar “Let the world know that we are ghosts indeed—since ghosts cannot be extinguished, nor can they be defeated.”I’m a man who’s been turning into a ghost with the pass…
This is methat little girl in pomegranate clotheskneeling at the door of a burning tentcrawling over fireSmearing my faceCovered in dust from the rubbleGathered in my palm the remnants of a dry loaf,i…
I have two feet, for walking the streets, on the beach, for running madly with my friends, and into my lover’s arms when we meetNot for running away from death . . . every day.I have fingers, for feel…
Photo by Abed Rahman A writer in the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza contemplates the many losses across multiple displacements and what the destruction wrought on Gaza says about the nature of t…
Photo by Haneen Salem Before burning them, a writer reads through his diaries to recall disappointments, failed love stories, and the details of ordinary relationships.Whenever I think bac…
Photo by Fadi Thabet I have chosen to carry my camera and pen instead of guns, to tell my story and promote peace around the world; I believe peace is a finer horse…
CURRENT ISSUE
July 2025
Not one but two special sections headline the July issue of World Literature Today: a cover feature about Mexican writer and 2025 Puterbaugh Fellow Guadalupe Nettel, plus the dossier “Gaza Voices,” guest-edited by Yousef Khanfar, which features 38 writers, poets, photographers, and translators bearing witness to humanity in a time of war. The issue also includes reviews, dispatchesplus a bevy of additional essays, fiction, and creative nonfiction.