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Book Launch - We Are Still Here: An Anthology of Resilience, Grief and Unshattered Hope from Gaza’s University Students
Date: Wednesday 22 October 2025
Time: 5-7pm
Venue: Jubilee Building, Room 144, University of Sussex
About the event
Join us for the launch of We Are Still Here: An Anthology of Resilience, Grief and Unshattered Hope from Gaza’s University Students. This new collection brings together short stories, poems, essays and testimonies from students in Gaza, written in real time and in extraordinary circumstances.
Since the start of the unfolding atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza, carried out through settler-colonial violence, higher education institutions have been systematically destroyed. Campuses lie in ruins, academics and students have been killed or forcibly displaced, and what was once a thriving, intellectually vibrant student population now lives under daily threat of bombardment, forced starvation, and death. For nearly two years, students have been cut off not only from their universities, but from their dreams, their futures, and even their most basic sense of safety.
Yet, despite this unimaginable trauma, many are still writing. We Are Still Here is an anthology of these voices raw, unfiltered, and courageous. It features short and long stories, poems, essays, and testimonies written by students from Gaza’s universities. These are not retrospective reflections or distant analyses; they are real-time words, emerging from the depths of genocide, displacement, and grief. These writings may be their last hopes to reach the world, a final act of resistance through expression.
The anthology is edited by Dr Jacob Norris (Co-Director of the Middle East and North Africa Centre at Sussex) and Professor Zahid Pranjol (School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex). Published by Daraja Press in August 2025, the book offers a powerful record of student life, creativity and resilience under severe adversity.
At this launch event you will:
- Hear from the editors about how the anthology came together
- Explore readings from the book and its themes of creativity, hope and endurance
- Have the opportunity to buy copies of the book, with all proceeds going directly to the student authors in Gaza
Speakers
- Dr Jacob Norris, historian of Palestine and Co-Director of the Middle East and North Africa Centre (MENACS), University of Sussex
- Professor Zahid Pranjol, Associate Dean (Education & Students) for the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine
Book details
- Title: We Are Still Here: An Anthology of Resilience, Grief and Unshattered Hope from Gaza’s University Students
- Publisher: Daraja Press
- Publication Date: August 2025
For more information about the book, visit https://darajapress.com/publication/we-are-still-here/