Dear Reader,

Nauseating was how last week felt, and for many reasons.

Could it be the media coverage that still centers Israeli lives, but says not a word about Gaza, as if nothing has since happened?

Could it be the empty October 7 statements that erase the people while praising the struggle?

Or is it the fact that, three years on, the genocide is still ongoing?

Speaking at a vigil on Oct. 9, I chose instead to highlight the voices of the survivors from Gaza. I share two such voices here (Rana Shubair and Aseel Marwan), and encourage you to subscribe to their Substack feeds.

In this newsletter, you’ll find my upcoming event calendar for the DMV area, featuring a mix of online and in-person appearances. Join me for conversations about Palestine and my new book, Palestine Bleeds For You. It will be delightful to see you and chat. If you haven’t picked up your copy of the book, this is your chance to get a signed one. More dates will be added, and I hope to be doing some travel. Anyone interested in inviting me to speak, please email me.

Enjoy my latest short story, ‘The Widow’. Its near-final draft, last edited in Palestine on October 6, 2023 (!), sat untouched for years. Surprisingly prescient, this pandemic-era story is on the folly of isolation and the critical need for empathy.

With love,
Ramsey Hanhan

EVENTS

“ Gone are the days of celebrating fall season. The yellow, orange and brown tree leaves on the ground. The cool morning breeze that refreshes the soul after a grueling hot summer. And the promise of cozy evenings while reclining with a cup of tea and a novel. These fanciful images have lost their vigor and have been replaced with different colors and scenes. The stream of blood mixed with dirt on a battered road. The gray and black smoke of bombing. The putrid stench of sewage. The pale faces of people going about like prisoners on death row. — ​Rana Shubair​

SHORT FICTION

The Widow “How will we ever know the totality of human thought, when the majority is discarded with the passing of each life?” -- A pandemic-era story of awakening and embracing change.

“ Where does my story begin? With the first displacement? The night we thought we might not survive? The moment my daughter, only five years old, looked at me from a corner of our shelter and asked, “Is the story over?” I am writing a book now. And I have begun to understand that choosing where to begin is not merely a literary decision. I don’t want the destruction to become the author of everything that came before it. I don’t want my daughter to encounter her childhood one day as a collection of photographs proving how much she suffered. — Aseel Marwan

ESSAYS

Part 2: Authority and Privilege Resist rewarding privilege in your support for Palestine. Why and how!

Part 3: Colonized Minds in the West How to discard entitlement, exceptionalism, and conditional inclusion!

RECENT EVENTS

A few images from the Baltimore Book Festival (Sep. 20), the Baltimore protest (Oct. 7), and the Howard County for a Free Palestine vigil (Oct. 9)

Order

Palestine Bleeds For You Fomite Press, 2026, 218 pages The shrieks of warplanes on their way to bomb Gaza provoked Ramsey Hanhan to write. This collection of poetry and essays plumbs the depths of human thought, religion, history, and culture in search of hope amid the world’s criminal silence. In an authentic Palestinian voice, Hanhan sketches the workings of the global machinery of oppression, revealing the centrality of Palestine’s liberation to decolonization, social justice, and environmental justice struggles around the world. “The book I never wanted to write.”

Ramsey Hanhan is a father, scientist, and independent author of two books: Palestine Bleeds For You (2026) and the autobiographical Fugitive Dreams (2022). His short stories, essays, and poetry appear in The Harvard Advocate, Fikra magazine, Scene48, Mondoweiss and other publications. A former physics professor, Ramsey lives near Baltimore, and speaks on Palestine and literature. Ramsey's Website ​​​​​​