"The Condition of Being Palestinian in English" Fady Joudah on Exhibit G

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Ahmed Moor speaks with poet & physician Fady Joudah about Fady's new book, Exhibit G, which was released today by Milkweed Press and named on the 2026 National Book Award's Long List for Poetry They discuss the book's poetry, prose poems, and photographs, most of which come from the Gaza Soup Kitchen, and how Fady uses these to communicate the language and experience of daily living during this genocide. Fady asks, "what it is that Palestinians speak in a time like this?," and points to the ways that he and other Palestinian writers and artists are addressing an erasure of Palestinian life and society that has existed for decades and been ignored until the genocide made the erasure impossible to deny. Fady and Ahmed discuss the mulitfaceted nature of gaining accolades and exposure for the book and the growth of solidarity with Palestinians as these come "at the cost of genocide." Fady articulates "the condition of being Palestinian in English," in which Palestinians are "starved...for any kind of believability." Finally, Ahmed and Fady talk about Fady's background -- born in the United States to Nakba-refugee parents who grew up in Gaza and raised in Libya and Saudi Arabia, with extensive and extended family in Gaza -- and his love of poetry and deep attachment to Arabic.  Fady Joudah is the author of […], a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, and Exhibit G. Exhibit G was released on September 22, 2026, by Milkweed Press: https://milkweed.org/book/exhibit-g Ahmed Moor is a Palestinian-American writer born in Gaza and a Fellow at FMEP. He is an advisory board member of the US Campaign for Palestinian rights, co-editor of After Zionism (Saqi Books) and is currently writing a book about Palestine. He also currently serves on the board of the Independence Media Foundation. His work has been published in The Guardian, The London Review of Books, The Nation, and elsewhere. He earned a BA at the University of Pennsylvania and an MPP at Harvard University. You can follow Ahmed on Substack at: https://ahmedmoor.substack.com and on X at @AhmedMoor. Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.