We announced last year that – after ten years of festivals – we were taking a year off production. We felt we needed to take a step back and consider the way the world has changed in the past decade and how we as a festival need to adapt to respond to that.

 

Our focus has long been the connection of international and Palestinian literature, our model a traveling festival stopping in cities across historic Palestine, our paradigm: the writer as witness. Working with over 200 Palestinian and international artists we hoped our festival would create experiences that filtered into their work and then out into the wider cultural discourse.

 

But as cultural producers we need always to be able to rethink and reimagine our roles. The political dynamics of the region have changed, as have the tools through which we each understand our world. The contours of the battle being fought over Palestine are constantly evolving.

 

So we’ve taken a year to think and imagine and hope that we’ll be back with in 2019 with a fresh festival equipped to engage with the changing landscape of the present.

 

Until next year,

 

The PalFest team