Atef Alshaer Map of Absence: An Anthology of Palestinian Writing on the Nakba

The Nakba, or catastrophe, of 1948 saw hundreds of thousands of Palestinians dispossessed from their land to create the state of Israel, creating a refugee crisis that is still ongoing today. This trauma is a central theme in much of the writing from Palestine, whose writers have been the vanguard of identity and representation of their people, rendering their depths, fears, longings, and hopes in a variety of discourses and styles.This unique collection brings together the finest poetry and prose on the Nakba by Palestinian writers over the last seventy years, for the first time. Covering three critical periods (pre-Nakba, post-Nakba and post-Oslo Accords), it includes translated excerpts of poems, novels, short stories and memoirs by major authors such as Mahmoud Dar wish, Samira Azzam, Fadwa Tuqan, and Edward Said, as well as by emerging Palestinian writers.This is an ideal book both for lovers of world literature and for those who seek a more intimate understanding of the conflict.Atef Alshaer is a lecturer in Arabic Studies at the University of Westminster, UK. He is the author of several publications in the fields of language, literature and politics, including Poetry and Politics in the Modern Arab World and Love and Poetry in the Middle East (forthcoming). Alshaer regularly contributes to academic and media outlets, including the BBC, Independent, i-Newspaper, Electronic Intifada, and Radio Monocle.
This landmark collection is the first to bring together seminal writings by Palestinian writers about the Nakba in one volume.