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The Gaza Trilogy

Hakemuksen tiivistelmä

This project is a trilogy of novels that delves into the complexities of Palestinian identity, resilience, and memory across three generations. Set in Gaza, the characters navigate fractured realities shaped by displacement, occupation, and internal conflict. Central to the work is the concept of "shattered time," capturing how political and social upheaval has fragmented Palestinian history and identity. The trilogy explores themes of individual and collective guilt, survival, and the quest for personal and communal redemption. By spanning different periods, the project offers a nuanced portrayal of Palestinian life, challenging conventional narratives while elevating marginalized voices. The novels will be crafted through literary writing and informed by cross-cultural collaboration and community engagement. Written in English, the stories will evolve through linguistic and cultural exchanges, drawing on my bilingual background. In addition to writing, I aim to collaborate with refugee communities and art organizations in Helsinki, where I will share storytelling and technical filmmaking skills with residents, refugees, and fellow artists. This trilogy will create a narrative about Palestinian culture and history, and stimulate a wider conversation on identity, resilience, and displacement. Through literature, the project aims to foster a deeper understanding of the Palestinian experience and its broader significance for displaced communities worldwide.

The Gaza Trilogy is a project of three novels examining Palestinian identity, resilience, and memory across three generations of one family in Al Shati refugee camp in Gaza. During the grant year, the trilogy's first installment, The Beach Camp, was drafted in full and delivered to a US-based literary agent for review and editorial development. The novel follows Ibrahim, a third-generation refugee, as the camp becomes the crucible in which his identity is forged. It is built on a three-act framework anchored by 22 tent pole scenes, drawing on my own upbringing in Al Shati and refined through workshopping at the Tin House Winter Workshop in Portland.

The grant year coincided with the war on Gaza, which reshaped the order of the trilogy. Rather than opening with the historical foundation novel proposed for Year 1, the work began with the contemporary novel closest to the reality of the moment. The trilogy's three-generation arc remains intact; only the writing order shifted, so the project could bear witness in real time.

Alongside the novel, the project produced several essays. "Zeppole (aka Awama)" was selected for The Best American Essays 2025 (Mariner Books, guest editor Jia Tolentino). "Clotheslines" was published in Your Impossible Voice. "94.2 FM" was completed and submitted to Guernica. "Political Party" was accepted by a literary journal in 2025 and is currently in editorial revisions.

In Helsinki, the project sustained a writing group practice, planning for a typewriter writing workshop series launching in August 2026, and public talks including a September 2025 event at the Parliament of Finland on Finland's role and responsibility in ending the genocide and oppression of Palestinians, and two events at the Palestinian Community. The trilogy's online photo archive at khalilabusharekh.com hosts a selection of nearly 3,000 digitized family photographs from our family home in Al Shati camp.

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