Mahmoud al-Shaer in conversation with Beesan Ramadan & Mirza Waheed

Episode 10 of the PalFest Podcast: in conversation with Mahmoud al-Shaer, editor, curator and poet. 

Mahmoud has long been a key figure in the literary scene in Gaza - a scene that Israel has all but destroyed. He founded a cultural centre in Rafah and the online literary magazine, Magazine 28. He was PalFest's co-producer in Gaza in 2023. 

During the genocide many thousands of people got to know Mahmoud through his writings, the painful chronicle of his family's separation, the brutal ordeal of survival under genocidal siege.

Much of those writings have now been collected into A Year on the Abyss of Genocide (Arp Books).

Mahmoud was finally able to get evacuated from Gaza to Spain, where our hosts Beesan and Waheed talked to him.

This episode was recorded between Madrid, Ramallah and London on February 17th, 2026.

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Watch the PalFest poetry event curated and introduced by Mahmoud in 2023 here.

Purchase A Year on the Abyss of Genocide as part of the October/November Bookshelf Bundle here.

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Credit to Meqdad.J on Soundcloud for the use of مراجيح | بصوت الشهيدة فاطمة حسونة (Swings - Sung by the Martyr Fatima Hassouna)