Yahia Lababidi

Yahia Lababidi is an Arab-American writer of Palestinian background and the author of twelve books of aphorisms, essays, poetry, and conversations. His most recent titles are On the Contrary: Wilde and Nietzsche (Fomite Shorts, 2025) and What Remains To Be Said (Wild Goose Publications, 2025). His forthcoming book, Wherever You Are: Essays from East to West (Ayin Press, 2026), is available for pre-order.

His book Palestine Wail (Daraja Press, 2024), a love letter to Gaza written amid the ongoing catastrophe, was endorsed by Naomi Shihab Nye, who praised his courage “to call out truth in the midst of catastrophe… and to grieve for the children who didn’t deserve any of this nightmare.” Poems from the collection have been translated into multiple languages.

His earlier books include Quarantine Notes (2023), Desert Songs (2022), Learning to Pray (2021), Revolutions of the Heart (2020), Signposts to Elsewhere (2019), and Where Epics Fail (2018).

Featured on PBS NewsHour, NPR, ABC Radio National’s Soul Search, and On Being with Krista Tippett, Lababidi’s aphorisms have been praised internationally. President Obama’s inaugural poet Richard Blanco calls him “the current-day master of this ancient literary form.” A five-time Pushcart nominee, he has served as a juror for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature and as a judge for the PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant (2024–25).

His writing appears in Liberties, Salmagundi, The New Statesman, The Threepenny Review, The Hedgehog Review, AGNI, Best American Poetry, Philosophy and Literature, Sojourners, Plough, World Literature Today, Bidoun, Tikkun, Consequence, Christian Century, Philosophy Now, Critical Muslim, The Fortnightly Review, Overland, The New Arab, and DAWN, with work forthcoming from the Nexus Institute. He has spoken at Oxford University and at international poetry festivals across the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia. His writing has been translated into numerous languages.