we are not numbers
emerging writers from Palestine tell their stories and advocate for their human rights
Check out these popular posts, one from each month in the past year.
“When the World Sleeps.” Artist: Malak Mattar
We Are Not Numbers has posted more than 300 stories and poems by emerging Palestinian writers in 2025. Our young people persevered through challenging and often horrific conditions (inside Gaza or in exile) to pitch, draft, and revise their work and respond to editor’s queries.
The output reflects their courage; at the same time, the process of writing has been a balm and a source of strength (see Why write in a genocide?).
Whispers of the walnut tree
Fatena Abu Mostafa
January
Sarah is my Los Angeles
Aseel Zeineddin
February
A lone survivor
Logain Hamdan
March
I never chose
Alaa Mahdi Kudaih
April
May the world know and never forget
Dana Besaiso
May
A mother and her quintuplets, martyred together
Areej Ahmed Hijazi
June
By any means necessary: the erasure of Gaza
Huda Skaik
July
What does not kill you makes you laugh
Roaa Aladdin Missmeh
August
Girlhood interrupted
Rama Hussain Abu Amra
September
Rashad Al-Shawa Center holds memories but also dreams for the future
Ohood Nasser
October
‘If, one day, a people will to live, then destiny must surely respond’
Saeda Hamdona
November
Zohran Mamdani makes me feel less alone
Lina Ghassan Abu Zayed
December
Find more content worth revisiting in our stories and poems archives.
Revisit the poem that has inspired a generation of Gazan writers: If I must die by Dr. Refaat Alareer.
Obtain your copy of WANN’s essay collection, available in English, Italian, and Japanese—and look for our Arabic edition, coming in 2026!
Launched in 2015, WANN connects young writers from Palestine with the largest possible global audience. At the same time, WANN offers people outside Palestine the opportunity to better understand the lived experience of occupation and exile and the Palestinian quest for self-determination.
Many of our writers have built on their writing successes at WANN to build careers in journalism, law, public service, and other pathways and to become the next generation of leaders in and for Palestine. Learn more about WANN’s history and objectives.
