You Must Live: New Poetry from Palestine

by Sherah Bloor (Editor), Jorie Graham (Other), Tayseer Abu Odeh (Editor)

A bilingual anthology of poems from Palestine (2023-2024), You Must Live attests to existence in the face of suppression. Bearing witness to the realities of the Palestinian genocide, You Must Live is a bilingual anthology of recent poetry from Gaza and the West Bank. Translated from Arabic and edited by Tayseer Abu Odeh and Sherah Bloor, this collection gathers the voices of poets currently living in Palestinian territory, most of whom have never left. Yet the poems in You Must Live refuse to cast their speakers as perpetual victims. Diverse voices and styles shine throughout—powerful, prayerful, theatrical, and even humorous—as poets write love letters to the landscape, elegies for martyrs and homes, and proclamations for the future. Negotiating the interplay between aesthetics and politics, the individual and the collective, You Must Live sounds as an urgent call to the global community.

Genres: Poetry

313 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 16, 2025

Reviews

[Taylor Franson-Thiel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes.

[Lucsbooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I requested "You Must Live" to try to do what I can to support, uplift and spread Palestinian voices.

This book is more than a poetry collection: most of the poems were written in the last 3 years, by poets who reside in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank. It's a testimony of a genocide and a historical document that those who come after us will judge us for allowing it to happen.

I had read a handful of translated poems by Mahmoud Darwish and a few other Arabic poems and really enjoyed them, but I was in every way a novice to Arabic poetry and slightly afraid I was out of my depth. One of the biggest surprises was that alongside the translated poems into English was the original in Arabic, which makes this edition perfect for bilingual people and anyone trying to learn any of those languages, but you can totally understand the translation, without being familiar with the culture.

Other than this book's theme, what got my attention was the biography of the editors and contributors to this book: it really is true that Palestinians are the most educated and academically accomplished people in the world. Reading it was pure academic joy.

The book ends with a small biography of each poet accompanied by a small picture. I found myself zooming in, trying and fearing recognising someone, after the last few years accompanying Palestinians through their reports of the genocide.

Thank you to Edelweiss and Copper Canyon Press for this DRC.

[Kirin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This important dual language collection of poetry written by Palestinians living in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank provides a powerful portrayal to not only the literary witness of a genocide, but also the rawness of humanity, beauty of hope, and the importance of elevating OWN voice narratives. I can read, but not understand the Arabic, but love that both it and the English share the space and make the book that much more accessible. There is nothing for me to opine upon the text contained, other than to say that sitting with the words, the messages, and bearing witness to the out pouring of emotions from a variety of writers was humbling, and inspiring. I love that pictures and biographies of the author's are featured in the backmatter, further showing that the people behind the words are very real and very much deserve to live. Free Palestine.