Yahia Lababidi, Arab-American of Palestinian background, is the author of more than a dozen books of aphorisms, essays, poetry and conversations. Lababidi's latest is What Remains To Be Said (Wild Goose Publications, 2025) New & Selected Aphorisms of his written over the past three decades: https://www.ionabooks.com/product/what-r...
Prior to that, Lababidi published Palestine Wail (Daraja Press, 2024) a love letter to Gaza, composed during the Genocide and endorsed by beloved Palestinian-American poet, Naomi Shihab Nye, who wrote:
- So many of us are wailing with Yahia Lababidi, who is not afraid to call out truth in the midst of catastrophe, to question heartless power, to embrace so-called conundrums and ‘others’ who didn’t have to be, to grieve for the children who didn’t deserve any of this nightmare, and to offer revelations.
In addition to receiving favorable reviews in the press, poetry from Palestine Wail has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize and translated into Arabic, Korean, French, Malayalam, Gaeilge, Spanish as well as Dutch by the Poet Laureate of the Netherlands, Babs Gons. Lababidi's poems for Palestine have, also, been read in literary festivals in the UK, Canada, Scotland, Holland and peaceful protests in the US, used in classrooms and were included in Democracy in Exile's Top 10 Most Popular Articles of 2024.
As part of the annual global publishing event, #ReadPalestineWeek, in just one week 3,351 e-copies of Lababidi's Palestine Wail were downloaded, directly, from his publisher, Daraja Press: https://darajapress.com/publication/pale... .
In 2024/2025, Lababidi served as a judge for the PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant, helping to evaluate literary works in translation and supporting outstanding projects that bring global voices to English readers. Lababidi's role as a judge reflects his engagement with international literature and commitment to literary diversity, cross cultural dialogue and social justice.
Other published works by Lababidi include: Quarantine Notes (Fomite Press, 2023) short meditations reflecting on our global pandemic; Desert Songs (Rowayat, 2022) a bilingual, photographic account of his desert retreats in Egypt; Learning to Pray (Kelsay Books, 2021) a collection of spiritual aphorisms and poems; as well as Revolutions of the Heart (Wipf & Stock, 2020) a mixed-genre compendium of his essays and conversations on crises and transformation. Lababidi is also the author of 2 celebrated books of aphorisms: Signposts to Elsewhere (Hay House, 2019) and Where Epics Fail (Unbound, 2018) — the latter which he was invited by Oxford University to launch in the UK. His Balancing Acts: New & Selected Poems (1993-2015) debuted at #1 on Amazon's Hot New Releases.
Featured on PBS NewsHour, Lababidi's aphorisms are acclaimed, internationally. Richard Blanco, President Obama's inaugural poet, calls Lababidi 'the current-day master' of this ancient literary form, declaring that 'each of Yahia's aphorisms appears as a simple, natural gesture, that in fact holds multitudes of meaning rooted in the eternal.'
Lababidi's work appears on NPR, ABC Radio National, HBO, Best American Poetry, AGNI, World Literature Today, On Being with Krista Tippett, Sufi, Islamic Horizons, Salmagundi, The New Arab, DAWN, Markaz Review, Plough, Christian Century, Spirituality & Health, Overland, Philosophy Now, PopMatters, and Liberties among other esteemed cultural outlets. Lababidi has participated in international poetry festivals throughout the USA, Eastern Europe as well as the Middle East.
Nominated for a Pushcart Prize, five times, Lababidi's writing has been translated into several languages, including: Hebrew, Slovak, Italian, German, and Swedish.
