Batool Abu Akleen reads her poem, 'Judgement Day'
Batool Abu Akleen reads her poem, Judgement Day, from her groundbreaking debut collection, 48kg. Filmed in Gaza just a few days ago by Ahmed al Danaf and edited by Adham Yahia. Gaza is once again under intense bombardment and nobody is safe. 48kg is a searing collection of remarkable power. It is the current pick on the PalFest Bookshelf and we highly recommend readers to get a copy. Max Porter is one of the many enthusiastic fans of Abu Akleen's work, writing: "One of the most viscerally affecting collections of poems I have ever read. Devastatingly precise and unforgettable images emerge from every line. The Arabic and the English sit side by side on the pages of this book but the effect is deeper than language, it meets the reader in the heart. I wept reading this brilliant, natural, gifted young poet and wished her subject was something other than this atrocity visited upon her and her people. What is happening in Gaza is a genocide not a war, but not since Akhmatova have I read poetry that so potently reckons with the relationship between war and the body. They create a new category of literary grace out of the cataclysm. These are poems of fire and agony, bombing and starvation, but they are also poems of grace, cleverness, tenderness and yearning. A great international poet arrives with this collection, but it is also a landmark work of resistance. No human should have to write their poetry from inside death's dominion, but Batool Abu Akleen has done it and the result is truly astonishing."
