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I Am Still Alive: Dispatches from Gaza
In I Am Still Dispatches from Gaza, Palestinian poet and cultural worker Mahmoud M Al-Shaer documents life during the ongoing war in Gaza with breathtaking clarity and devastating intimacy. Composed as a series of dispatches written since January 11, 2024, the author uses his voice to record his struggle to hold onto words in resistance to erasure and whilst bearing witness to unbearable violence. These texts offer not just a relentless chronicle of destruction, but a vital affirmation of presence, relation, and survival amidst the unspeakable catastrophes unfolding in Gaza.
From the wreckage of homes and futures, Al-Shaer builds language as shelter—raw, lyrical, defiant. His writing refuses the daily cruelty imposed by war and human rights violations, and demands the world pay attention. Each page pulses with an utterance that I am still alive.
Mahmoud M Al-Shaer has dedicated this book to his three-year-old twins—Nai and Majd—now separated by nearly 1,000 kilometers and exposed to different traumas. All proceeds from the sale of I Am Still Alive (available in print and ebook formats) will go to the author to support his family and other Palestinians.
Mahmoud M Al-Shaer is a writer, poet, and editor-in-chief of 28 Magazine as well as founder and head curator of 28 Gallery in Rafah, Palestine. Al-Shaer coordinated cultural projects in collaboration with visual artists and writers for the publishing house Khuta, for Al-Ghussein House in Gaza City (where he was cultural program coordinator), for Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation Palestine, and for Goethe-Institut Ramallah. He was co-curator of the New Alphabet School at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2019–22) where he also co-edited (with Olga Schubert, Gigi Argyropoulou, an Rahul Gudipudi) edition #22 of DNA, the HKW’s publication series released adjacent to the program. He contributed to the 12th Berlin Biennial (2023) and was also part of two exhibitions by the Quattan Foundation in Ramallah (Instant Modernism, 2023 and The Valley Trail, 2021). Since the beginning of the ongoing war in Gaza, he has been working at the field hospital of the International Medical Corps (IMC) in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis.
Published by K. Verlag.
With texts by the author and a publisher’s preface by Anna-Sophie Springer. Endorsements by Carolin Emcke, Wolfgang Kaleck, Bernd Scherer, Shela Sheikh, Eyal Weizman, and Jacob Wren. Co-edited by Olga Schubert and Anna-Sophie Springer. Print book design by K. Verlag with Wolfgang Hückel & Katharina Tauer; Ebook design and production by Caleb Waldorf.
From the wreckage of homes and futures, Al-Shaer builds language as shelter—raw, lyrical, defiant. His writing refuses the daily cruelty imposed by war and human rights violations, and demands the world pay attention. Each page pulses with an utterance that I am still alive.
Mahmoud M Al-Shaer has dedicated this book to his three-year-old twins—Nai and Majd—now separated by nearly 1,000 kilometers and exposed to different traumas. All proceeds from the sale of I Am Still Alive (available in print and ebook formats) will go to the author to support his family and other Palestinians.
Mahmoud M Al-Shaer is a writer, poet, and editor-in-chief of 28 Magazine as well as founder and head curator of 28 Gallery in Rafah, Palestine. Al-Shaer coordinated cultural projects in collaboration with visual artists and writers for the publishing house Khuta, for Al-Ghussein House in Gaza City (where he was cultural program coordinator), for Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation Palestine, and for Goethe-Institut Ramallah. He was co-curator of the New Alphabet School at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2019–22) where he also co-edited (with Olga Schubert, Gigi Argyropoulou, an Rahul Gudipudi) edition #22 of DNA, the HKW’s publication series released adjacent to the program. He contributed to the 12th Berlin Biennial (2023) and was also part of two exhibitions by the Quattan Foundation in Ramallah (Instant Modernism, 2023 and The Valley Trail, 2021). Since the beginning of the ongoing war in Gaza, he has been working at the field hospital of the International Medical Corps (IMC) in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis.
Published by K. Verlag.
With texts by the author and a publisher’s preface by Anna-Sophie Springer. Endorsements by Carolin Emcke, Wolfgang Kaleck, Bernd Scherer, Shela Sheikh, Eyal Weizman, and Jacob Wren. Co-edited by Olga Schubert and Anna-Sophie Springer. Print book design by K. Verlag with Wolfgang Hückel & Katharina Tauer; Ebook design and production by Caleb Waldorf.
166 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 13, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 31, 2025
A tough read that aims to bring us to Gaza to witness 1st hand the reality of life there. Today, when most of us are privileged to live war-free lives in which bombardments and famine and destitution are concepts of the past, 2 million people in Gaza experience them on daily basis. It's hard to imagine. His dispatches read like tales from another era or maybe another planet. As soon as I finished the last page, I opened the book from the beginning and read it again - I wanted to make sure I've really understood it, that's how hard to grasp his reality is.
December 26, 2025
Es un grito agónico de ayuda.
Es desesperante ver como el libro va hacia el pasado y no hacia el futuro, saber cual es el desenlace de los sucesos y ver más tarde la ilusión por estos. ver como un trámite es rechazado y, en la página siguiente, su ilusión por ver si les han aceptado.
Es desolador.
Mahmoud, no puedo esperar a comprarme tu siguiente libro, aquí tienes a una nueva lectora fiel.
Es desesperante ver como el libro va hacia el pasado y no hacia el futuro, saber cual es el desenlace de los sucesos y ver más tarde la ilusión por estos. ver como un trámite es rechazado y, en la página siguiente, su ilusión por ver si les han aceptado.
Es desolador.
Mahmoud, no puedo esperar a comprarme tu siguiente libro, aquí tienes a una nueva lectora fiel.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews