Yahia Lababidi, an Arab-American writer of Palestinian background, is the author of more than a dozen acclaimed books of aphorisms, essays, poetry, and conversations. His latest are On the Contrary: Wilde and Nietzsche (Fomite Shorts, 2025) and What Remains To Be Said (Wild Goose Publications, 2025), a New & Selected collection of aphorisms written over three decades.
Lababidi’s Palestine Wail (Daraja Press, 2024), a love letter to Gaza written amid the genocide, was endorsed by beloved Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye, who praised his courage “to call out truth in the midst of catastrophe... to grieve for the children who didn’t deserve any of this nightmare, and to offer revelations.” Poems from the collection have been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize, translated into Arabic, Korean, French, Malayalam, Gaeilge, Spanish, and Dutch by the Poet Laureate of the Netherlands, Babs Gons, and featured in festivals, classrooms, and vigils across the world. During #ReadPalestineWeek, more than 3,300 e-copies were downloaded from his publisher, Daraja Press.
In 2024–25, Lababidi served as a judge for the PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant, reflecting his engagement with international literature, cross-cultural dialogue, and social justice. His earlier books include Quarantine Notes (Fomite Press, 2023), short meditations composed during the global pandemic; Desert Songs (Rowayat, 2022), a bilingual, photographic chronicle of desert retreats in Egypt; Learning to Pray: A Book of Longing (Kelsay Books, 2021); and Revolutions of the Heart (Wipf & Stock, 2020). He is also the author of two celebrated aphorism collections, Signposts to Elsewhere (Hay House, 2019) and Where Epics Fail (Unbound, 2018), the latter launched at Oxford University. His Balancing Acts: New & Selected Poems (1993–2015) debuted at #1 on Amazon’s Hot New Releases.
Featured on PBS NewsHour, NPR, and On Being with Krista Tippett, Lababidi’s aphorisms have been hailed internationally. President Obama’s inaugural poet Richard Blanco calls him “the current-day master of this ancient literary form.” His work has appeared in Best American Poetry, World Literature Today, Salmagundi, The New Arab, DAWN, Plough, Christian Century, Overland, Philosophy Now, Spirituality & Health, and Liberties, among others. A five-time Pushcart nominee, Lababidi has spoken at Oxford University, participated in international poetry festivals across the US, Europe, and the Middle East, and his writing has been translated into Hebrew, Slovak, Italian, German, and Swedish.
