As part of FIYAH’s solidarity pledge with the people of Palestine, FIYAH released a special issue curated, edited, illustrated and comprised entirely of Palestinian creators in December 2021. The collection was edited by guests Nadia Shammas and Summer Farah, and featured cover art by Leila Aboutaleb.
The issue is available for purchase as a bound ebook, the sales of which are donated to Medical Aid for Palestine (MAP), an organization working for the health and dignity of Palestinians living under occupation and as refugees. They provide immediate medical aid to those in great need, while also developing local capacity and skills to ensure the long-term development of the Palestinian healthcare system. For more information, visit their website.
The pieces are also available to read for free on our website. Find the full listing below.
“When I find the first letter” by Aiya Sakr
When I find the first letter in the garden among the green beans I try to ignore it think it a weed it grows and grows blank ink a foot off the raised bed tail like a flaccid flag this ي I have thought expected someone would find me letters turn to rot Read more
“To New Jerusalem” by Farah Kader
The backseat passenger sits up straight on the side opposite the driver with her hands folded in her lap. Her eyes are hard with disquiet as they stare through the side window to the infinite smudge that a passing cityscape becomes. The driver maintains a steady speed, accelerating only to give his battered taxi enough Read more
“The Night Journey” by Samah Fadil
The pen exploded through her crisp white shirt. The ink bled through and spread like the microcosm of a galaxy onto the polyester, and the girl remembered her small thumbs staining as she held a copy of the newspaper. Her grandmother demanded she read it when the girl visited her in Gaza in the summer Read more
“Single Witness” by Layla Azmi Goushey
In the beginning was the Abyss I awakened soon after A hero’s jewel clutched in my fist My finger pointing, lips moving, but silent The words would not come I lit a candle and lamented I worshipped my disillusion as I would a martyred saint By the light of the altar I recognized no kindred Read more
“rise” by Sarah Risheq
I can’t tell if these are bones. Bones piled up on top of each other. Will they ever dig us out? Find what emerges, the stories, the dark and the light? A boneyard. The earth lays with open wounds, waiting to be filled with us alive. This mud made us, and now will protect us Read more
“Muneera and the Moon” by Sonia Sulaiman
The conditions were perfect for drawing a spirit: the pomegranate tree stood for forty years at the top of the hill, overlooking the wadi and its village far, far below. It waved its branches, peerless and heavy with fruits. Long winding strands of fabric entwined every inch of bark. The constant blowing of the wind Read more
“LIBERATION IS ROTTING IN YOUR FIGS ” by leena aboutaleb
I ate my country as we laid bare and scorching licked a shivering delicate like a placenta tongue up thighs like a cannibal, like an urgency, like a Palestinian akh ya Rabi, I’m so infatuated with country-land I draw borders in oil pastels, how delirious of me turn the Opera on let us hear a Read more
“from UNIVERSAL THEORY IN WHICH EVERY FAILED ATTEMPT AT LOVE IS A SOULMATE FROM AN ALTERNATE TIMELINE” by George Abraham
Let’s say this is the story of a boy you loved so much, you did everything in your power to cast him almost. Consider the wane & cyclic, the phylogenetic folding. Let’s say he loves you in a way you can only imagine as evolution of & here, the mythos of he & you misalign Read more
“Five things found in Shahrazad’s garden” by Aiya Sakr
A full moon about the size of my palm so bright I put it in the linen closet and for three days a month the doors turn translucent I can’t sleep A prancing painted horse with a lame leg I wind it up and watch it crash in circles A curved dagger with sticky tree Read more
“First Leaf” by Elise Stephens
Ikma When I saw Hafeti smash every pot in her courtyard, I knew there was still fight left in the girl. That was the moment I decided I’d help her. It was like inviting her to become my second chance, an apology to my younger self for all I had left undone. Some will call Read more
“Casting Runes” by Rasha Abdulhadi
these marks upon my arms are not for charms or meant to be charming, they are not for protection, not for kurt cobain, and though i like it when a friend asks if this one on my left hand is a dandelion seed, it is not a symbol for that either. these are a bridge Read more
“Captain’s Log” by Fargo Tbakhi
CAPTAIN’S LOG ABOARD THE GOOD SHIP PALESTINE; CAPTAIN ON ROTATION FOR WEEK OF 13/02/2148: TBAKHI, WAJIEH Antenna is broke. Have requested Nadia assemble crew for repair. Communications spotty at best. Need part but do not have in supplies. Outlook poor. Left engine is broke. Some rumbling and shudder and we shifted off course. Naturally Read more
“Blood Suck” by Samah Fadil
Her fangs came out at night rows along the highway blood burst out in spurts the evil in the details Her sisters entrenched in the sight saw devils challenge desperate fight Stars gleaming, pointed, sharp punctured through stillness of dark Serrated blades, each pearl a sin tearing through her soft fleshed kin Rabid as a Read more
“Arab American Gothic” by Omar Zahzah
Ssssh Your baba says Teta says it’s djinn— bad dreams that fester in the corner The crooked eye of the mirror. Glass steps from nowhere and back.
“an exercise in public displays of vulnerability, or, an epic of silenced mass catastrophic proportion” by feras hilal
1 i come from the land where fruit on the tree is picked, not left to rot on trees; land of plenty where nothing goes to waste. an ex-general aide said on video: {______} would bring armageddon to {_______}—when it is liberation that will be the graveyard of both. in palestine, every morning brings a Read more
