October 15, 2026

Mizna announces its special bilingual anthology, Take My Sorrow and Sew Me a Heart Its Size: A Gaza Folio, available for pre-order now

Mizna announces Take My Sorrow and Sew Me a Heart Its Size: A Gaza Folio, a special collection of writing and art by Palestinians from Gaza. As guest editor, exiled Gazan poet and Mizna Fellow Yahya Ashour writes in his foreword that this project “is not a substitute for the full reality of what is happening in Gaza, nor does it attempt to resolve any so-called conflict in which the world has chosen to trap and crush us. The truth is as clear as the sun. It blinds those who are forever chasing proof or profit like a dog chasing a bone . . . These are texts that try to scream and expose everything, yet language collapses before them, unable to carry the weight.” The folio’s title is taken from a featured poem by Nour Saqar, who laments that when she returns to Gaza the tailors from her street will no longer be there, to “Take my / sorrow, and / Sew me a heart / its size.” 

The anthology holds a number of important pieces from writers in Gaza as well as Palestinian writers in diaspora who have roots in Gaza. Acclaimed author and psychologist Hala Alyan contributes a poem satirizing the willful blindness and moral hypocrisy of those at the heart of empire, watching and complicit in genocidal violence. Essayist Eman Basher writes a poignant tribute to Dr. Refaat Alareer, the Gazan scholar, writer, activist, and personal mentor to many, who was killed by Israel in the second month of the genocide in Gaza. In a short essay, poet Anees Ghanima describes receiving phone calls announcing the deaths of loved ones over the course of hundreds of days, and he awaits his turn. Acclaimed author Nasser Rabah’s poem recounts the ways interactions between people and places have changed since the start of the genocide as he rides in a taxi making its way down a destroyed street. Artist Bayan Abu Nahla contributes original illustrations centered on the grief and cruelty caused by Israeli-manufactured instances of famine and food shortages in Gaza. Undergirding it all, Palestinian designer Haitham Haddad creates a dynamic layout for the folio, where English and Arabic texts collide with each other as well as with motifs of suturing, embroidery, and loose threads. Haddad also deconstructs Abu Nahla’s illustrations and stitches them together throughout the publication.

Take My Sorrow is fully bilingual, an imperative originating from the majority-Gazan selection committee for the project to be “by Gaza, for Gaza” and its diaspora, and not merely for Anglophone consumption. More than twenty texts, half originally written in Arabic and half originally in English, were then selected and either translated by their original writers or by a range of collaborating translators, many of whom are Gazan or Palestinian and who donated their time and worked closely with authors. 

The announcement of this publication comes as the Israeli genocide in Gaza has passed its three-year mark, as settler attacks escalate in the West Bank, and as the Israeli colonization of Palestine continues with impunity. “I’m astounded by this gorgeous, devastating collection that Yahya Ashour has helmed,” says Artistic and Executive Director of Mizna Lana Salah Barkawi. “This project was first announced in 2024, and has moved at the pace of care to accommodate the horrific conditions many contributors have had to endure. This project materializes Mizna’s commitment to preserving and uplifting Palestinian voices as a resistance to disregard and erasure. Palestinian life, Palestinian creativity, persists.”

The full list of contributors comprises Hisham AbdelAl, Nadia Abujayab, Bayan Abu Nahla, Heba Alagha, Mariam Alkhateeb, Sara Alsweirki, Hala Alyan, Hamed Ashour, Eman Basher, Deema Dalloul, Nidal Faqaawi, Anees Ghanima, Hanan Habashi, Malak Haw, Heba Hayek, Hanaa Ibrahim, Khaled Jumaa, Wisam Owaida, Nasser Rabah, and Nour Saqar, with translations by Ammiel Alcalay, Norah Alkharashi, Sinan Antoon, Sarah Aziza, Abdelrahman ElGendy, Sara Elkamel, Huda Fakhreddine, Layla Faraj, Nour Eldin Hussein, Nour Jaljuli, Nourhan Kazak, Walid El Khachab, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, Rawad Wehbe, and Sahar Othmani.

Take My Sorrow and Sew Me a Heart Its Size: A Gaza Folio is available for pre-order now.