Sumud

By: Malu Halasa, Jordan Elgrably

Published by Seven Stories Press, 2025-01-21

<b>An anthology that celebrates the power of culture in Palestinian resistance, with selections of memoir, short stories, essays, book reviews, personal narrative, poetry, and art.<br><br>Includes twenty-five black-and-white illustrations by Palestinian artists.</b><br><br>The Arabic word <i>sumūd</i> is often loosely translated as “steadfastness” or “standing fast.” It is, above all, a Palestinian cultural value of everyday perseverance in the face of Israeli occupation. <i>Sumūd</i> is both a personal and collective commitment; people determine their own lives, despite the environment of constant oppressions imposed upon them. <br><br>This anthology spans the 20th and 21st centuries of Palestinian cultural history, and highlights writing from 2021–2024. The collection of writing and art features work from forty-six contributors including:<br><br><ul><li>Dispatches from Hossam Madhoun, co-founder of Gaza's Theatre for Everybody, as he survives the post-October 2023 war on Gaza;</li><li>Novelist Ahmed Masoud with “Application 39,” a sci-fi short story about a Dystopian bid for the Olympics;</li><li>Sara Roy and Ivar Ekeland with “The New Politics of Exclusion: Gaza as Prologue,” an analysis of Israel’s divide and conquer policies of fragmentation;</li><li>Historian Ilan Pappé with a review of Tahrir Hamdi’s book, <i>Imagining Palestine</i>, in which he unpacks the relationship between culture and resistance;</li><li>Essayist Lina Mounzer with “Palestine and the Unspeakable,” an offering on the language used to dehumanize Palestinians;</li><li>And poetry by the next generation of poets who have inherited the mantle of the late Mahmoud Darwish (1941–2008).</li></ul><br>The essays, stories, poetry, art and personal narrative collected in <i>Sumūd: A New Palestinian Reader</i> is a rich riposte to those who would denigrate Palestinians’ aspirations for a homeland. It also serves as a timely reminder of culture’s power and importance during occupation and war.