Writing Clinic - Mentoring for Writers

This is such a superb piece of writing, done under the most terrible pressures. One can learn a lot about how to write a story from Samah's use of personal observations and small concrete and sensory details. The pictures are superb too.

Here is her fundraiser if you're moved by it to want to help:

The road to Khan Younis - We Are Not Numbers On my third trip to the city, everything felt different—strange, suffocating, and heavy.

This is a good read. I think he may be right. I was a melancholy child and books saved me, even - or maybe especially - the miserable ones. And I can confirm the Hans Fallada and the Coetzee are brilliant. I tend to prefer War and Peace to Anna Karenina (I could never really understand her passion for Count Vronsky) but it's true that it's not as depressing. I haven't read his latest yet but I can also recommend Rabih Alameddine's 'An Unnecessary Woman'. I'm adding the others to my list too.

Six Very Depressing Books That Might Just Cheer You Up I’ve always read my way through depressions. When my world sucks, I shut the drapes, hide under the cover, and read. And I will read everything: novels, classics, epic fantasy, romance, spy novels,…

A reminder about the free Hey! Festival tomorrow at the Hillcrest Community Centre in Newhaven. The festival starts at 2pm and I'll be talking to Ahmed Alnaouq the founder of We Are Not Numbers promptly at 2.15. It's only half an hour so don't be later. There's art, music, poetry and writing workshops as well, all packed into 4 hours.

Don't miss the FREE Hey! Festival in Newhaven on 18th October. Just one afternoon - 4-6pm - with lots of different creative events including poetry, writing workshops, art and music, and the opening event will be me interviewing Ahmed Alnaouq, the co-founder of We Are Not Numbers about the work we do mentoring young writers in Gaza, and how they find the strength and motivation under the current horrific conditions there to keep showing up to tell the world what is happening.

Festival organiser Nick Royle on what’s happening at our second pop up micro festival Hey! In Newhaven on 18th October. It’s a free festival jam packed with good things. 2-6 pm Hillcrest Community Centre 18/10 Join us! #Hey! #liveliterature #newhaven #wordsmatter #poetry #workshops #gaza #community #comingtogether #activism #writingcommunity #writersofinstagram #activism

Writing, poetry, storytelling, talks, and I'll be interviewing Ahmed Alnaouq, the co-founder of with Dr Refaat Alareer who was murdered, along with his whole family, in Gaza. WANN is an organisation that nurtures and mentors young Gazan writers and we will also have some readings from their moving stories and poems in the new WANN book that came out in UK in May and immediately went to the top of the bestseller lists.

Hey! Festival - a radically new kind of festival is coming to Newhaven on Oct 18th Hey! Festival - there are going to be different ones across the country, there's already been one in Doncaster, but particularly where Reform is polling well - is a radically new kind of discursive festival, one that dares to challenge the present political landscape. And it is coming to Newhaven on...

A powerful example of the use of voice in writing. I love the sudden switch from the chaos of the situation to the inner reflections of the writer as he returns home empty-handed. I marvel also at how people are still able to write with such passion and skill in the midst of such privations.

Where aid falls, dignity breaks - We Are Not Numbers For Israel, the food airdrop is not a humanitarian consideration. It is a means of control and humiliation.

Delighted to say that The Literary Hub has picked up a piece from one of our We Are Not Numbers writers.

A book stall in central Gaza is keeping literature alive amidst genocide. Photo by Esraa Abo Qamar A small bookstall in the central Gaza Strip is keeping reading alive amidst Israel’s unrelenting chaos and violence, The Electronic Intifada reports. The stall, called Eqra…

Gaza is running out of blood because people in Gaza are too malnourished for their blood to be eligible for donation and blood from the West Bank is being blocked by Israel. Meanwhile the IDF is shooting people, including children, while they queue to collect food.
Read Donya Abu Sitta's article about it here:
http://bit.ly/40hnRjM
Donya, a talented writer, is training to be a doctor and help people and she is unable to donate blood. If you'd like to help her and her family to help others, please donate here.
https://gofund.me/e8438278

Gaza is running out of blood We are no longer able to save our wounded through blood donations. Starvation has made our blood unusable.

A piece written by one of my We Are Not Numbers mentees in Gaza for the Guardian. They are such eloquent, committed writers, writing under such unbelievably hellish conditions. Their determination to be heard, to live and tell their stories is just awe-inspiring.

In Gaza we watched Iranian missiles go by, heading for Israel. That war is over – it seems ours will never end | Hassan Abo Qamar For two years, we’ve waited for a final ceasefire that has never come. Peace will be delayed as long as our lives are considered disposable, says Hassan Abo Qamar, a Palestinian writer and journalist based in Gaza

The latest peice from one of my young mentee writers in Gaza.

inhttps://wearenotnumbers.org/rooted-yet-lost/

Rooted yet lost - We Are Not Numbers For many Gazans, belonging is as much about memory and identity as a place, and the bond remains even when that place is no longer recognizable.

The latest piece from Gaza. If you want to know what it feels like to be under bombardment. I've just worked with this remarkably brave and talented young women on her next piece, which will be on the site soon..

“When Silence Screams” by Samah Zaher Zaqout captures the terrifying stillness between bombings in Gaza. From shattered homes to whispered prayers, Samah paints the unending cycle of fear, waiting, and grief that fills each quiet moment. She shares stories of family, survival, and the unbearable weight of what silence now means in Gaza. Read the full story through the link in bio.

https://wearenotnumbers.org/when-silence-screams/

I did a final edit on this story and it made me cry, both with its pathos and it's a beauty. I can honestly say that I have never ever encountered people of such intelligence, talent, compassion and determination to embrace life as these Gazan writers. What a colossal waste of so much human potential.

I am the one who remains - We Are Not Numbers Everyone I loved has become a martyr. But I am here for you, my son, my father, my brother, my husband. And for Gaza.