North Gazan Writer Yousri Alghoul on Fundraising for a Library – ARABLIT & ARABLIT QUARTERLY

By ArabLit Staff

Palestinian novelist Yousri Alghoul — who makes his home in north Gaza — turned his personal library into a community space in 2022. When it was destroyed by airstrikes this past fall, it held about 3,000 books. “Most of these books were literary works,” he said. “Novels and short stories and poems.”

While there were some other libraries in north Gaza, such as the Edward Said Library organized by Mosab Abu Toha, Alghoul said that his library was at his house in Al Shati camp, and he plans to reestablish it there when he rebuilds his home after the war.

Currently he is raising $5000 CAD not to aid with the reconstruction project, but solely to purchase books to replace what was lost.

The fundraiser — like most Gazan fundraisers, on GoFundMe — is currently close to $1500 CAD.

In his statement on GoFundMe, Alghoul writes, “The devastation was not just physical; it was the erasure of countless stories, dreams, Palestinian culture, and the promise of a brighter future. The loss of my library has left a void that is deeply felt, not only by me but by the many who found solace and inspiration within its walls.”

However, despite feeling devastated by the loss of this library, he writes:

In the face of this profound loss, I am not giving up. Instead, I am channeling my grief into a mission to rebuild and expand. My vision is to create a community library for refugees in my community in North Gaza that stands as a testament to our resilience and culture, and our unwavering belief in the power of knowledge. The war will end, and we will need to rebuild Gaza. This new library will be a communal space where minds can meet, ideas can flourish, and dreams can be nurtured.

The novelist has worked on several such cultural initiatives in Gaza, including Shaghaf Gaza, which supported emerging writers, and Cordoba Culture, which supported authors across Gaza. He also was a contributor to the “Gaza! Gaza! Gaza!” issue of ArabLit Quarterly.

His translator in the issue, Graham Liddell, writes that he first encountered Yousri Alghoul’s writing when he was working on my dissertation project in graduate school. “I had been looking for contemporary novels about increased irregular migration to Europe, written from the perspective of refugees from the Arab world and Afghanistan. My PhD advisor had seen a review of Yousri’s novel Gallows of Darkness and recommended I check it out. I was immediately intrigued by Yousri’s approach of putting experiences of Palestinian dispossession into conversation with narratives of the current ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe. He did so by placing refugee characters from Gaza and Syria literally in ‘the same boat’ — a rubber dinghy making an ill-fated clandestine crossing from Turkey to Greece.”

Liddell adds:

Beyond just being relevant to my former research project, Yousri’s writing is striking in a number of ways. Probably most notable is his crafting of a unique kind of horror literature: visceral depictions of war, human cruelty, and physical and spiritual turmoil. Yousri also has a penchant for depicting the supernatural. His short story “Today My Sight Is Sharp” (featured in the latest Quarterly issue) is written from the perspective of a man who has died, but whose spirit is trapped inside his body because his burial has been delayed. In another story, “García Márquez Heartily Applauds,” Yousri imagines meeting his favorite authors in the afterlife. At the end of the story, the protagonist encounters the slain Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

Somehow, throughout the unfolding genocide in Gaza, Yousri has continued to write. His short story, “A Life Dipped in Blood,” was written and is set during the current war. My translation of it was published last month in the Irish litmag The Stinging Fly, where it was featured as the first story of the issue. Yousri aspires to continue honing his writing craft by participating in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, where he has been accepted, but he has thus far been unable to travel to the US to attend.

Alghoul’s fundraiser can be found at www.gofundme.com/f/help-rebuild-gazan-authors-public-library-for-the-community.