Actress Debra Winger reads Refaat Alareer’s new book “If I Must Die” on Anniversary of his Death

UPDATE: Journalist Ryan Grim (Dropsite News, The Intercept) has started a movement to make Refaat Alareer’s book a global bestseller. It has already soared into the top 50 worldwide. This is truly unprecedented for a book of poetry, from a Palestinian poet no less. There’s obviously a pent-up demand for voices like Refaat’s. Let’s build on this momentum. Let’s make Refaat Number 1 in the rankings.
Royalties go to Refaat’s surviving family in Gaza.

UPDATE ii: Demand for this book “If I Must Die” is so strong the publisher is worried they will sell out on publication day - December 10 2024.

Best thing to do is PRE-ORDER IT NOW. Pre-orders count toward the rankings.

https://orbooks.com/catalog/if-i-must...
https://bookshop.org/p/books/if-i-mus...

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LIVE ON AVENUE C, a conversation series by OR Books

Readings from the newly published book “If I Must Die” and reflections on the legacy of the author Refaat Alareer - Palestinian poet, writer, professor - on the anniversary of his death by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. With Rashid Khalidi, Norman Finkelstein, Mosab Abu Toha, Sara Roy, Najla Said, Debra Winger, Helena Cobban and Yousef Aljamal.

Debra Winger is an American actress. She starred in the films An Officer and a Gentleman, Terms of Endearment, and Shadowlands, each of which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. In later years, she became involved in Palestinian-Israeli reconciliation efforts and public health advocacy.

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About the Book:

IF I MUST DIE
Poetry and Prose

By REFAAT ALAREER

Compiled with an introduction by
YOUSEF M. ALJAMAL

Foreword by
SUSAN ABULHAWA

This rich, elegiac compilation of work from the late Palestinian poet and professor, Refaat Alareer, brings together his marvelous poetry and deeply human writing about literature, teaching, politics, and family.

“Refaat left us, but his word must not.”
—Mosab Abu Toha

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https://orbooks.com/catalog/if-i-must...
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About the Author:

The renowned poet and literature professor Refaat Alareer was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City alongside his brother, sister, and nephews in December 2023. He was just forty-four years old, but had already established a worldwide reputation that was further enhanced when, in the wake of his death, the poem that gives this book its title became a global sensation. “If I Must Die” is included here, alongside Refaat’s other poetry.

Refaat wrote extensively about a range of topics: teaching Shakespeare and the way Shylock could be appreciated by young Palestinian students; the horrors of living under repeated brutal assaults in Gaza, one of which, in 2014, killed another of his brothers; and the generosity of Palestinians to each other, fighting, in the face of it all, to be the one paying at the supermarket checkout.
Such pieces, some never before published, have been curated here by one of Refaat’s closest friends and collaborators. This collection forms a fitting testament to a remarkable writer, educator, and activist, one whose voice will not be silenced by death but will continue to assert the power of learning and humanism in the face of barbarity.

Refaat Alareer gained his PhD with a dissertation on the poetry of John Donne. He taught English Literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, now destroyed. He is the editor of two collections of writing by his students, Gaza Writes Back and Gaza Unsilenced (both published by Just World Books). His journalism featured in The New York Times, and he appeared on the BBC, ABC News, and Democracy Now. He was a volunteer at the Gaza Zoo.

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