Palestine Festival of Literature (PalFest)

The Palestine Festival of Literature (PalFest) was established in 2008 with the aim of supporting cultural life in Palestine. On the official website the organisers state that their aim is to break the cultural siege imposed on Palestinians by the Israeli military occupation and strengthen cultural links between Palestine and the rest of the world.

Since 2008 an annual literary festival has been the center of activities and organisers have brought dozens of influential literary figures from the UK, US and Arab world to teach workshops and perform in free public events. It partners dozens of Palestinian organizations – cultural and educational – to produce an immersive, collaborative festival every year.

Outside of the festival dates there is an ongoing programme of educational work with the Palestine Writing Workshop. The Workshop is a volunteer led organization that has been offering trainings since November 2009 when it was initiated with PalFest participant Rachel Holmes, as writer in residence.

The organisers work to reaffirm, in the words of Edward Said, ‘the power of culture over the culture of power".

When? PalFest 2015 will be running from May 23rd to 28th

Where? In cities all across Palestine

Who? - 2015 TBA

Website? Palestine Festival of Literature

Social Media? - Twitter - http://twitter.com/PalFest Facebook? - http://twitter.com/PalFest

Past Festivals? Established 2008

Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Susan Abulhawa, Teju Cole, DAM, Ministry of Dub-Key, Najwan Darwish, Nathan Hamilton, Nathalie Handal, Ahmed Harb, Ursula Lindsey, Sabrina Mahfouz, Michael Ondaatje, Ed Pavlic, Mazin Qumsiyeh, Sapphire, Kamila Shamsie, Ahdaf Soueif, Linda Spalding, Haifa Zangana, Rafeef Ziadeh. .

Alaa Abd El Fattah -Khalid Abdalla -Ghada Abdel Aal -Atef Abu Saif -Susan Abulhawa -Ali Abunimah -Lorraine Adams -Meena Alexander -Suad Amiry -Lina Attalah -Asmaa Azaizeh -Ibtisam Azem -Iyad Barghouti -Mourid Barghouti -Bidisha -Victoria Brittain -Carmen Callil -Anne Chisholm -Susannah Clapp -Geraldine D’amico -DAM -Selma Dabbagh -Ahmad Dahbour -William Dalrymple -Najwan Darwish -Roddy Doyle -Falastine Dwikat -Geoff Dyer -Jillian Edelstein -Omar El-Khairy -Sahar Elmougy -Eskenderella -Amr Ezzat -Adam Foulds -Esther Freud -Mark Gonzales -Abdulrazak Gurnah -Amin Haddad -Tarik Hamdan -Suheir Hammad -Nathalie Handal -Mohammad Hanif -Jeremy Harding -Manal Hassan -Selina Hastings -Alaa Hlehel -Rachel Holmes -Othman Hussein -Aamer Hussein -Ian Jack -Jafra -May Jayyusi -Amani Juneidi -Remi Kanazi -Ghada Karmi -Brigid Keenan -Mercedes Kemp -Nancy Kricorian -Marcia Lynx Qualey -Jamal Mahjoub -Henning Mankell -John McCarthy -Ritu Menon -Claire Messud -Pankaj Mishra -China Miéville -Deborah Moggach -Taha Muhammad Ali -Akram Musallem -Hisham Naffa’a -Khaled Najar -Sonia Nimr -Amir Nizar Zuabi -Andrew O’Hagan -Ursula Owen -Michael Palin -Basharat Peer -Richard Price -Alexandra Pringle -Youssef Rakha -Al Salam -Eugene Schoulgin -Raja Shehadeh -Hala Shrouf -Gillian Slovo -Jesse Soodalter -Ahdaf Soueif -William Sutcliffe -Tashweesh -M.G. Vassanji -Alice Walker -Tom Warner -Wildworks -Hyam Yared -Robin Yassin-Kassab -Gary Younge -Nora Younis -Nariman Youssef -Khaled al Khamissi Hanan al-Shaykh