Home 5 Articles and Reports 5 Rifqa: A Palestinian Poet’s Debut Collection

Rifqa: A Palestinian Poet’s Debut Collection

Palestinian poet shortlisted for the best debut collection

The Palestinian poet, writer, and journalist, Mohammed El-Kurd, who lives in Jerusalem, occupied Palestine, has been shortlisted for the £5,000 Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection for his debut Rifqa, published by Chicago’s radical independent house Haymarket Books, part of the city’s non-profit Centre for Economic Research and Social Change.

El-Kurd is the Palestine correspondent for The Nation, the US weekly magazine covering progressive political and cultural news. Describing his book, Haymarket says: “Each day after school, Mohammed El-Kurd’s grandmother welcomed him at the door of his home with a bouquet of jasmine. Her name was Rifqa—she was older than Israel itself and an icon of Palestinian resilience. With razor-sharp wit and glistening moral clarity, El-Kurd lays bare the brutality of Israeli settler colonialism. His poems trace Rifqa’s exile from Haifa to his family’s current dispossession in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, exposing the cyclical and relentless horror of the Nakba. El-Kurd’s debut collection definitively shows that the Palestinian struggle is a revolution, until victory.”

The Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection is named after the British magazine publisher and poet who died in 2014. Rifqa joins four other titles on the shortlist. The Felix Dennis Prize is part of the Forward Prizes for poetry which includes Best Collection and Best Single Poem. The Forward Prizes are run the UK’s Forward Arts Foundation, a charity committed to widening the audience for poetry. The winners will be announced on 28 November.

Rifqa has received some glowing reviews. Adhaf Soueif, the author of The Map of Love, said: “Rooted in Palestine and ranging across the world, these are poems that hurl themselves at the boundaries of what poems can do; lyrics that put a premium on anger, that reflect the serrated edges of living in the world today, that gift new and powerful phrases to the lexicon of liberation.”

Recent News

17Jun
K-Book Copyright Market 2025 Kicks Off in Seoul

K-Book Copyright Market 2025 Kicks Off in Seoul

The K-Book Copyright Market 2025 has officially kicked off in Seoul and will continue through June 18 at Lotte Hotel World in Songpa-gu District. The event brings together 100 publishing companies from 30 countries for three days of copyright negotiations, business meetings, and global exchange. It is jointly organized by South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, […]

16Jun
Beijing Book Fair 2025: Tech and Books Unite

Beijing Book Fair 2025: Tech and Books Unite

The 31st Beijing International Book Fair this month goes heavily into conferences and academic publishing. Asia’s biggest trade event has enjoyed double-digit growth in exhibitor numbers, with AI and STM topics high on the agenda at Beijing. The 31st Beijing International Book Fair, themed “Promoting Civilizational Inheritance and Development, Advancing Exchange and Mutual Learning for […]

12Jun
The UK launches annual awards for audio content

The UK launches annual awards for audio content

Two of the UK’s leading cultural publications – The Bookseller and The Stage – have announced the launch of The British Audio Awards aka The Speakies, a brand-new annual event celebrating outstanding achievement in audiobooks and audio drama.   The British Audio Awards will shine a spotlight on ‘the most innovative, moving, and masterfully produced […]

Related Posts

K-Book Copyright Market 2025 Kicks Off in Seoul

K-Book Copyright Market 2025 Kicks Off in Seoul

The K-Book Copyright Market 2025 has officially kicked off in Seoul and will continue through June 18 at Lotte Hotel World in Songpa-gu District. The event brings together 100 publishing companies from 30 countries for three days of copyright negotiations, business...

Onshur: Sharjah’s Vision for Publishing Sustainability

Onshur: Sharjah’s Vision for Publishing Sustainability

The Sharjah Publishing Sustainability Fund (Onshur) stands as a landmark initiative within the UAE’s ongoing efforts to empower the publishing sector and strengthen its presence both locally and internationally. In its latest milestone, the fund recently celebrated...

Beijing Book Fair 2025: Tech and Books Unite

Beijing Book Fair 2025: Tech and Books Unite

The 31st Beijing International Book Fair this month goes heavily into conferences and academic publishing. Asia’s biggest trade event has enjoyed double-digit growth in exhibitor numbers, with AI and STM topics high on the agenda at Beijing. The 31st Beijing...

Previous Next
Close
Test Caption
Test Description goes like this