In Book of Wills, eighteen Gazan writers share their last will and testament. Compiled by Reem Ghanayem, the collection is a profound exploration of the written word as an act of resistance. Profits from Book of Wills will go to Gaza Publications, founded by poet and journalist Husam Maarouf, one of the contributors in Book of Wills. In this conversation, we hear about the formation of Gaza Publications, their launch titles and how we as readers can support their mission.

How did you come to establish Gaza Publications?

Life came to a complete halt during the war on Gaza. Activities stopped. Shops closed. Markets emptied. Even hope seemed to disappear from people’s hearts. Alongside this total paralysis, cultural life ceased entirely. Occupation forces destroyed twenty-four cultural centres across Gaza, including the Rashad al-Shawa Cultural Center, the Gaza Municipality Library, Qasr al-Basha and many other institutions that had long been part of the city’s intellectual and public life. This destruction was more than the loss of buildings; it was an attempt to suffocate the city’s cultural spirit. Faced with this reality, I urgently considered how to preserve Gaza’s cultural scene – how to ensure its continued pulse and growth despite everything.

The idea of Gaza Publications did not originate during the war. It had lived within me for years, postponed repeatedly due to circumstances and practical challenges. But the war made postponement impossible. I felt the moment demanded a cultural response – an act that would reaffirm the power of the word and restore the place of writing.

 

Who did you work with to set up the publishing house?

I reached out to friends and prominent figures in the Palestinian cultural scene. We held online meetings that were often interrupted by unstable internet connections, which reflected the broader instability around us. Together, we began shaping a clear framework for selecting, editing and preparing manuscripts for our first book, as well as for printing and distributing it. We agreed on the core principles that would guide the publishing house and define its mission.

This war has generated an overwhelming number of stories, emotions and searing experiences – scenes that surpass imagination in their brutality. It was essential that these testimonies did not disappear into silence. We saw our responsibility as one of documentation, not in the form of passing news, but rather through literature that preserves the human experience at its most vulnerable.

Through Gaza Publications, we aim to gather Palestinian voices, publish their work and transform pain into narrative. In doing so, we hope to safeguard memory and affirm that culture in Gaza is not a luxury, but a necessity of existence.

Could you tell us more about your goal in setting up Gaza Publications?

We believe that cultural work is life itself, especially in the darkest of circumstances. During the war, it was crucial to maintain cultural life and creative production, even if it endangered our lives.

Forty-one Palestinian intellectuals – including poets, writers and artists – have been killed during this war. Many of them were targeted for striving to convey the Palestinian narrative to the world. Yes, we were in danger. But the greater danger was silence. We had to continue. We had to publish. We had to create.

Our work focuses on collaborating with writers in Gaza and those who endured the war before leaving through crossings to other countries. We sought out writers who experienced the reality first-hand – those who survived unbearable conditions during the genocide and prolonged assault. It was important to us to not only document the events but also confront and examine the emotions born from them. We aimed to transform these emotions into published works that bear witness to the crimes committed against civilians in the Gaza Strip over the past two years.

Our goal is to ensure that the Palestinian narrative endures as more than just a political narrative, but also as a cultural, civilizational and deeply human one. 

We want to tell a story that honours human emotion, insists on dignity and expands the space for understanding, connection and, ultimately, peace between people.

Can you tell us about some of the first books and writers you are publishing?

Our first publication was by the Palestinian writer Amer al-Masri, who lives in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Amer is a writer who captures human emotion with remarkable sensitivity, often exploring the inner dialogue between the individual and the world around him. His work explores the frustration, oppression, fear, disorientation, bombardment and brutal scenes left behind by war, and his deeply introspective narratives help to illuminate the Palestinian experience of pain and catastrophe.  

We published his short story collection, The Man Who Turned Back, in 2025. Through these stories, Amer conveys the many forms of suffering that Palestinians have faced during the relentless targeting of civilians in Gaza. The collection bears witness to the anguish, displacement and extreme violence faced by ordinary people

Our second publication was a novel by the Palestinian writer Reham Al-Sabaa, called I Am At Your Door. In it, she recounts the personal experiences of a Palestinian woman who endures the horrors of war and is unwillingly displaced under extraordinarily harsh conditions. The novel delves into the hidden layers of human resilience, fragility and emotional survival during wartime.

Reham writes about what the news cannot say. During the war, foreign journalists were not permitted to enter Gaza, so media coverage could never fully capture the lived reality. This is where literature comes in: to reveal what is concealed, to uncover what is silenced and to expose the hidden emotional and psychological landscapes of war.

Our third publication, currently in production, is by writer Bisan Nateel and is titled The Man With the Sea Shoes. It takes the form of diaries written during the genocide. Drawing from her experience working with civil society organisations, Bisan presents real lived experiences in a narrative style that blends literary craft with documentary urgency. Without embellishment or fiction, she conveys the daily suffering faced by Palestinian families, especially women and children, under conditions of danger, fear, hunger, displacement and profound uncertainty.

The fourth book, by writer and poet Hind Joudeh, will follow the release of Bisan’s work. Her book explores the Palestinian experience in an age of technological acceleration and global interconnectedness. In a world that now sees everything through a digital lens, Joudeh offers personal, introspective reflections on Palestinian emotions under occupation. She examines how globalisation and technology reshape, but do not erase, the realities of oppression and isolation.

Through these publications, we aim to do more than document suffering; we want to capture its human depth and ensure that the Palestinian experience is preserved as literature, not reduced to headlines.

Where can readers access the books you are publishing and how can they support Gaza Publications?

The support of readers, through purchasing books, sharing them and promoting them in every possible way, is a real contribution to protecting the Palestinian story and ensuring its continuity.

You can order books through the Handal platform. You can also follow us on Instagram and Facebook to learn about forthcoming books.

We aspire to launch our own website soon. It will not just be a space to showcase or advertise our books; we aim for it to become a cultural and intellectual platform under the title ‘Gaza Publications – A Cultural Platform’, where articles and cultural reports reflecting the Palestinian reality, intellectual life and cultural landscape will be published. This is a key part of our future vision, but since our publishing house is still emerging and entirely self-funded, it will take time and support to implement.

What we ask of our readers is simple but crucial: to purchase Gaza Publications’ books. Buying these books is not merely a transaction, it is a direct way to support Palestinian culture and give it the support it needs to survive. We live in the context of existential struggle, facing attempts at cultural, intellectual and existential erasure. Palestinian literature – narrative, intellectual and artistic – is under constant threat of suppression.

Husam Maarouf is a poet and journalist. He received the Mahmoud Darwish Museum Award for Prose Poetry (2015) and the Bodour A1 Turki Foundation Award for Cultural Development (2015), under which his first poetry collection, Death Has the Smell of Glass, was published, as well as the novel Chisel Ram (2020) and his second poetry collection, The Loyal Barber to his Dead Clients (2023). He is one of 18 Gazan writers who contributed his testimony, Halt!, to an anthology published in English and Arabic, Book of Wills.