“Writing is the Last Line of Defense”: An Interview with Palestinian Poet Yahya Al Hamarna
Yahya Al Hamarna is a Palestinian writer, researcher, and refugee from the Gaza Strip. He studied Political Science, International Relations, and Diplomacy at Al-Azhar University in Gaza. His writing focuses on human rights, justice, international law, and global politics, while his poetry explores memory, exile, love, and survival in times of war. His work carves deeply into the living memory of Palestine, preserving the voices, places, and everyday moments that violence seeks to erase. His poignant debut poetry collection, My Voice Cannot Be Bombed, was published by Iskra Books in 2025. Through social media, excerpts have travelled around the world, and a full French translation by Elissa Kayal and Nada Sattouf has most recently been published by Éditions de la Rue Dorion in Quebec and Burn∼Août in France....