When
to
Where
Carriageworks, Bay 19: The Booktopia Stage
245 Wilson Street
Eveleigh NSW 2015
Australia
Why
Pulitzer Prize winner and founder of the Edward Said Library in Gaza, Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha has achieved incredible things in his first three decades of life. He was barely 30 when the most recent bombardment in Gaza began and he started writing his latest poetry collection Forest of Noise. In this conversation event, Mosab shares his poetry, full of fury and longing, and speaks to the land and culture that influence his work.
Hear Mosab in conversation with Sara M. Saleh and with an opening performance by poet Hasib Hourani.
Tickets available from Sydney Writer's Festival.
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Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet, short story writer and essayist from Gaza. His first collection of poetry, Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and won the Palestine Book Award, the American Book Award and the Walcott Poetry Prize. Abu Toha is also the founder of the Edward Said Library in Gaza, which Israel destroyed. His second poetry book, Forest of Noise, was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. In 2025, Abu Toha won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his Letter from Gaza columns in The New Yorker.
Hasib Hourani is a Lebanese-Palestinian writer, editor, arts worker and educator living on unceded Gadigal Country. His debut book rock flight was released with Giramondo in 2024 and went on to win the NSW Literary Awards Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry 2025 and the Mary Gilmore Award 2025.
Sara M. Saleh is an award-winning writer and human rights lawyer of Palestinian, Egyptian and Lebanese heritage. Her writing has been published across dozens of literary platforms and shared at festivals from Brooklyn to Beirut. Sara made history as the first poet to win the prestigious Peter Porter and the Judith Wright Poetry Prizes. Her debut novel, Songs for the Dead and the Living, and poetry collection, The Flirtation of Girls, received multiple prizes and shortlistings.