The Writings of Shahd Alnaami
This half-letter size zine collects Shahd’s writing, both nonfiction and poetry, about her experiences of the most recent years of the ongoing genocide of Palestinians. Her writing immortalizes some of what has been lost, with precision and grace.--Sheer Spite Press
Editions: English, Finnish, French, German, Spanish, Italian.
Letter to the Reader
Dear Gentle Reader,
This is Shahd, a survivor of genocide, still here after a year and three months. The days and months have been too hard. I have lost so much— or perhaps I should say everything. I lost my only sister, Rahaf. I lost friends, home, and any sense of stability. But I am still alive today, still holding my pen, still writing. Because stories must be told. Because my people’s suffering cannot be forgotten. Because words have the power to bring life to what others try to erase.
If these pages have found their way into your hands, then in some way, our worlds have met. And in this meeting, I write this message to tell you: no matter how heavy life becomes, no matter how impossible the pain feels, it will pass. Nothing lasts forever, not even suffering. I once thought I would not be able to bear the weight of loss, the ache of grief. But here I am. And here you are, reading these words. We are both still here, and there is still a story to tell.
And if you are reading this, then you, too, carry a light within you, no matter how small it may seem right now. Life has a way of testing us, of making us believe that we are too weak, too broken to go on. But I promise you, you are stronger than you know. Every time you choose to rise after falling, every time you hold on to hope when everything tells you to let go, you are proving that strength is not about never breaking — it is about always rebuilding. Keep going. Keep believing. Even the longest nights must give way to dawn.
May you always find strength in your own story. May you hold on to hope, even in the darkest of nights. And may we all, somehow, find our way to healing.
With love and resilience,
Shahd
March 14, 2025
Reviews
“Shahd Alnaami’s writings put word after word to the totality of loss, the dignity of grief—words wholly lived, forged in the conviction of endurance. Composed a year and three months after Al-Aqsa Flood, a year and three months into the Zionist entity’s escalated genocide in Gaza, these pieces serve as an archive of daily missing, loving, remembering, writing, always resisting. They are confessional, documentary, gritty with hope. Here, Alnaami finds strength in her own story, as she insists: ‘Words have the power to bring life to what others try to erase.’”
—Jody Chan, author of sick (2020), impact statement (2024), and madness belongs to the people (2026); member of Toronto Writers Against the War on Gaza and No Arms In The Arts
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