World Literature Today. A Conversation with Palestine Prize Laureate Ibrahim Nasrallah

I had an incredible opportunity to interview renowned Palestinian writer, Ibrahim Nasrallah on behalf of World Literature Today.

After publishing it’s landmark issue Palestine Voices 2021, Lena Jayyusi said, “Thank you for your vision and courage in producing the ‘Palestine Voices’ issue of WLT. Despite the very difficult times that both Palestine and the world are going through, across so many different dimensions these days, projects of solidarity and creativity maintain one’s faith in the future.”—Lena Jayyusi, Amman, Jordan, July 2021.

World Literature Today has not been afraid to present authentic and groundbreaking literature from all over the world and continues to do so.

Nasrallah was awarded the Palestinian Prize Laureate on behalf of the Palestine Prize Foundation. The Palestine Prize Foundation was founded “To preserve, protect and promote the Palestinian dreams and achievements. −Yousef Khanfar”.

When I began the interview, I had just finished filming the BBC documentary The Holy Land and Us; Our Untold Stories, about my own family’s survival and loss relating back to the 1948 Nakba. My family were originally from Deir Yassin. We lost 22 family members on that day.

Having the opportunity to conduct this interview for Ibrahim Nasrallah on the 75th year of this event, it was a stark reminder how important Palestinian writers are in capturing their homeland and keeping our memories and homes alive. The interview is therefore titled, “Opening a path to my house in Palestine”.

This was particularly poignant for me at this time and Nasrallah’s words and work have been an inspiration.

Nasrallah gives us an insight to the difficulties, importance, beauty and hope writing offers for Palestinians and beyond.

Thank you to Mona Darwazah for translating this piece from Arabic to English. To Yousef Khanfar for his unrelenting pursuit of Palestinian art including his own legacy as one of the top photographers in the world. Thank you to Ibrahim Nasrallah for sharing your life’s work with me and now to all the readers of WLT. And thank you to World Literature Today for continuing to publish important pieces the world needs to read.

To access the full interview, please visit World Literature Today.