In 2020, award-winning novelist Sahar Mustafah wrote a blog for the AWM with reading recommendations for Arab American Heritage Month. In this time of violence and strife, we asked her to come back and tell us what she now thinks is important for people to read during this Arab American Heritage Month. As a Palestinian American, her focus is on Gaza, and she was impassioned to present more than a list of titles, but also why she thinks these titles are so important.
Check out Sahar’s recommendations below and join us on June 7 at the 2026 American Writers Festival, where Sahar will be discussing her latest novel The Slightest Green!
What to Read during a Genocide
By Sahar Mustafah
This Arab American Heritage Month—the third one amid an active genocide—is a critical reminder that Palestinian Americans embody a deep wound that never closes. Approximately 175,000 citizens identified Palestinian ancestry on the 2020 Census (though scholars cite underreporting).
This inherited identity has long been politically charged and socially stigmatized. To be Palestinian is like the third rail: for the greater part of the 20th century, it was painstakingly avoided in the greater reckoning with oppression and colonialism.
As of October 2023, the history and question of Palestine has imploded in Western consciousness. This is in spite of the complicity of mainstream media, which, to date, is Zionism’s most lethal weapon of manufactured consent. If news outlets continue to invisibilize Palestinians and their struggle to live, how can we bear witness? Through literature and art. Our stories reveal that we are not our suffering, but that suffering has been imposed upon us. And that our joy is as boundless and invincible as the sky.
Here I present titles released during the genocide—the most I’ve ever seen in single years. Some were written to speak directly to the escalated rate of ethnic cleansing; others were planned publications, which offer conversations Palestinian writers continue to have with the history of the Nakba and its devastation of life, and the on-going violent occupation by Israel.
What does such a list mean? Among resilience, hope, and understanding, our literature functions as a record of a people who are as deserving of life and freedom as every human being who has ever fought for these natural birthrights. These books are not intended to humanize Palestinians, for we are human and the fact that we’ve been charged with proving so has led to this awful moment. These books by Palestinian Americans are intended to de-normalize hatred and bigotry, and to celebrate our identity and culture. For the more we read Palestinians, the wider space we’re given to exist and thrive.
The following book list is also available here on Bookshop.org, where proceeds benefit independent bookstores.
Children’s Books
I begin here since as an educator of 30 years I’ve recognized a critical reality: representation matters. And it matters when delivered consistently by way of joyful stories illustrating our strong bonds to the land and our bequeathed stewardship.
Hilwa’s Gifts by Safa Suleiman, illustrated by Anait Semirdzhyan
Safa Suleiman takes us along Ali’s journey of a lifetime for his first olive harvest. Coming from the States, he meets his ancestral family and discovers the beauty and bounty of Hilwa, an aged olive tree. This moving book is inspired by Suleiman’s own visit to Al-Bireh, a town in the West Bank, where she participated in her family’s olive harvest.
Everything Grows in Jiddo’s Garden by Jenan Matari, illustrated by Aya Ghanameh
This lovely book is inspired by Jenan Matari’s memories of her grandfather’s garden—a bittersweet surrogate for a stolen land. A young girl discovers Palestine through an abundant vegetable patch. Matari offers supplemental information on the Palestine Seed Library as part of the publisher’s package, which, against the odds of the Occupation and apartheid, seeks to preserve agrarian indigeneity.
Poetry
For me, a poem is the most immediate way to enter a world and another’s lived experience. Poetry can at once cradle and repulse us, scorch our eyes and teach us to see more closely. When words fail us, we turn to our poets to give voice to our despair and offer us hope.
Water to Water: Gaza Renga by Marilyn Hacker and Deema K. Shehabi
The long-standing collaboration between Deema K. Shehabi and Marilyn Hacker is a gift to the world. In the tradition of a “call-and-response” renga, the poets aptly confront the devastation of Gaza, illuminating the urgency of communal conversations in times of dehumanization.
Hacker and Shehabi will discuss their work at the AWM on April 20 at 6:00 pm. Learn more here.
Heaven Looks Like Us: Palestinian Poetry edited by George Abraham and Noor Hindi
This transcendent anthology is co-edited by two luminous voices—yet another testament to the power of collaboration in times of crisis. George Abraham and Hind Noori have gathered these far-ranging poems from all over the world, intersecting Palestinian identities and countering homogeneous narratives of our community.
Fiction
One of the most engaging ways to disarm us of our prejudice and preconceived notions of others is by telling a good story. That’s how I came to teach literature and creative writing to young people. Two of my favorite debut novels explore the Palestinian immigrant experience in America. First, second, and third generations each carry their own host of challenges and a bouquet of triumphs. Both novels poignantly demonstrate that Palestinian Americans are not a monolith.
Behind You Is the Sea by Susan Muaddi Darraj
Susan Muaddi Darraj, author of the children’s series Farah Rocks, offers a very deft and intimate look inside a Christian Palestinian community in Baltimore. We follow multigenerational families contending with assimilation and belonging, while aching for homeland.
Arab American Blues by Paul Aziz Zarou
Paul Zarou centers the son of immigrant parents, as he navigates the political tumult of 1960’s America. Michael Haddad comes of age working in his parents’ grocery store which offers a cross-section of class, gender, and race in New York City.
Memoir / Nonfiction
First-hand accounts of the genocide and displacement have offered us an unflinching glimpse of the escalated ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Both of the following featured Palestinian American authors have tirelessly amplified Israel’s apartheid state and uplift the voices of survivors by documenting and sharing their written work.
The Hollow Half: A Memoir of Bodies and Borders by Sarah Aziza
In haunting, lyrical prose, Sarah Aziza’s memoir is a gorgeous, gutting interrogation of the relationship between the body and homeland. She provides an unflinching and intimate view of her battle with disordered eating as informed by her paternal family’s exile from Gaza.
Every Moment Is a Life: Gaza in the Time of Genocide edited by susan abulhawa
susan abulhawa, bestselling author and activist, traveled to Gaza twice over the last two years to collect the stories of survivors. She facilitated workshops for men and women who had to travel dangerous routes to attend, and some without any prior writing experience. From this incredible experience, a stunning, undaunted collection emerged.
I offer this list of books with the unshakeable belief that stories play an important role in our collective liberation. May this Arab American Heritage Month continue to pave the way.
SAHAR MUSTAFAH is an award-winning Palestinian American author of The Slightest Green, The Beauty of Your Face, and Code of the West. Her recent fiction is featured in Stories from the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction; The View from Gaza published in The Massachusetts Review; and Redline: Chicago Horror Stories. Mustafah writes and teaches outside of Chicago.