The Palestinian Wedding: A Bilingual Reader of Resistance Poetry collected & edited by A. M. Elmessiri

Release date: October 16, 2026

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Poetry has long been Palestine's most vital art form - a space where memory is safeguarded and resistance given voice. Spanning a century of upheaval and endurance, The Palestinian Wedding brings together twenty-one major poets in a powerful bilingual anthology.

From the charged lyricism of Tawfiq Zayyad to the expansive imagery of Walid al-Halis; from the romantic cadences of Salma al-Jayyusi to the profound rootedness of Mahmoud Darwish, these poems chart the emotional and political landscape of modern Palestine. Together, they reveal a tradition in which love of land, grief, defiance and hope are inseparable.

Edited and introduced by the eminent scholar A.M. Elmessiri, the collection is arranged around six central themes - revolution, war, elegy, belonging, resistance and steadfastness - offering readers both an essential literary archive and a vital lens on Palestinian cultural history.

About the Editor

A.M. Elmessiri (1938-2008) was an Egyptian scholar, writer and political organiser. Over the course of his lifetime, Elmessiri wrote over fifty books and numerous articles. His major areas of research included Judaism, Zionism, secularism, modernism and comparative literature. ElMessiri had an MA in English and comparative literature from Columbia University and a PhD from Rutgers University. During his illustrious academic career, he was professor at Ain Shams University, King SaudUniversity, Kuwait University and at the International Islamic University in Malaysia.