Mahmoud Jouda

Biography

A Palestinian writer and novelist born in Rafah. His essays and literary texts have appeared in Arab and international newspapers and magazines. His writing is concerned with documenting the human experience in Gaza and recovering the stories of people that are so often lost behind the language of news reports and statistics. His publications include the short-story collection Gaza the Orphan, the book Letters to Baghdad, and the novel The Garden of Legs, which draws on the real testimonies of young men who lost limbs during the Great March of Return. He approaches writing as a means of protecting stories from erasure and restoring people’s humanity beyond imposed narratives of heroism. His works have been translated into several languages, most recently with the Dutch translation of The Garden of Legs.