S7, E1: Forest of Noise with Mosab Abu Toha
Forest of Noise
Tuesday 28th January 2025
We were delighted to have Mosab Abu Toha join us in January. Mosab is a Palestinian poet, short-story writer and essayist from Gaza. He founded the Edward Said Library in Gaza, which was destroyed during the 2023 genocide. He hopes to rebuild it.
Mosab read from his latest remarkable and critically acclaimed poetry book, Forest of Noise, and discussed the ongoing situation in Gaza and what the future may hold. His poetry bears witness to life under siege and genocide, transforming trauma into art that refuses to let the world look away.
After the Israeli army bombed and destroyed his house in November 2023, Mosab and his family fled for their safety. On their journey to Rafah with a visa to leave Gaza, Mosab — like so many men in Gaza — was detained and tortured by the Israeli military. He is currently living in the United States.
Mosab has 133K followers on Instagram, where he shares his poetry and regularly updates about the conditions in Gaza, the ongoing attacks and killings. He also calls out the complicity and failure of so many to work for an end to the war on Gaza and unquestioning support of Israel.
His first collection, Things You May Find Hidden In My Ear, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and won the Palestine Book Award, the American Book Award and the Walcott Poetry Prize. His second book, Forest of Noise, has received numerous plaudits and was described as powerful, capacious and profound by Ocean Vuong.
Mosab recently won an Overseas Press Club Award for his Letter from Gaza columns for The New Yorker.
Our guest:
- Mosab Abu Toha: Palestinian poet, writer and founder of the Edward Said Library, Gaza
