Sara M. Saleh on Palestine, liberation and poetry

Sara M. Saleh is a human rights lawyer, community organiser, writer and the daughter of migrants from Palestine, Egypt and Lebanon. She has many very impressive achievements to her name including being the first poet to win both the Australian Book Review’s Peter Porter Poetry Prize and the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize, which she did back to back in 2020 and 2021. Sara’s debut novel Songs for the Dead and the Living is out now (link below where you can buy).  

Sara is one of the voices that has been a helpful guide for me in recent weeks as we’ve seen the Israeli government cause enormous levels of destruction and loss of human life in Gaza. 

This conversation is really helpful for decoupling anti-zionism and anti-semitism and understanding why it’s so dangerous when these are conflated. 

It’s so obvious, as you’ll hear throughout this conversation that Sara holds a fierce commitment to any group of oppressed and suffering people, while striving for solutions that do not simply flip who is oppressing who. The way she speaks about liberation is so generous and beautiful and just. 

We talk about the limits of identity politics and the deep solidarity that can be found in shared values — and there’s just so much wisdom here. 

Listen deeply, share widely, and take whatever actions you can — great or small — in the direction of justice. 

Sara’s website:
https://www.saramsaleh.com/

Buy ‘Songs for the Dead and the Living’:
https://www.booktopia.com.au/songs-for-the-dead-and-the-living-sara-m-saleh/book/9781922848536.html

Follow Sara on Instagram: @instasaranade

‘A guide to Palestine for beginners’ (this is a fantastic doc):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lgiFGdUKiPfzC-xo6LZQXvGNIXGHyMYsGCA035kKc80/mobilebasic

Donate to the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network: https://apan.org.au/donate/

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