Edward Said needs no introductions, but what happens when writers are asked to newly introduce the works that helped define his legacy? In this episode Isabella Hammad, who writes the introduction to a new edition of Said’s “Representations of the Intellectual,” and Hisham Matar, who does the same for his memoir “Out of Place”, discuss Said’s work and their own takes on many of the questions he thought about: the category of “the intellectual,” the particular modes of thinking and being that writing fiction demands, self-making in exile, and late style.

Isabella Hammad is the award-winning author of Enter Ghost, The Parisian, and Recognizing the Stranger.

Hisham Matar is the author of multiple novels including In the Country of Men, Anatomy of a Disappearance, My Friends, and the Pulitzer prize winning memoir, The Return.

Edward Said was a professor of literature at Columbia University as well as a public writer and political advocate for Palestinian liberation. He is the author of multiple works on culture and empire including Orientalism, Covering Islam, The Question of Palestine, and Culture and Imperialism. He is considered a founding figure of post-colonial studies.

This episode was recorded in New York at Young Atlas, Harlem, on April 3rd, 2026

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How do different forms of writing explore ideas that come from our personal and political histories? In Episode 16 of the PalFest podcast, Tareq Baconi and Saleem Haddad discuss their new books – Haddad’s novel Floodlines and Baconi’s memoir Fire in Every Direction – with their questions of family, exile, return, and the possibilities of art.

This episode was recorded at Ibraaz in London on February 11th, 2026.

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Check out The Key here

Find us on our website or our socials:

Insta: @palfest Bluesky: @palfest.bsky.social YouTube: @Palfest

On this episode of the PalFest podcast, we mark the launch of the UK edition of Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s Something About Living, published by the 87 Press, at the London Review Bookshop.

Lena Khalaf Tuffaha is one of the most influential Palestinian poets working in English today. Her collections have won multiple prizes and her poems have been published across the spectrum of poetry magazines.

So Mayer is a writer, editor, bookseller, organiser and film curator. Their most recent book is Bad Language, published by Peninsula Press in 2025, a memoir and manifesto on language and power.

Thanks to the LRB Bookshop for the event and the recording.

This episode was recorded in London on March 16th, 2026.

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Check out the latest PalFest digital publication The Key here

Subscribe to the PalFest Bookshelf here

Find us on our website or our socials:

Insta: @palfest Bluesky: @palfest.bsky.social YouTube: @Palfest