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Atef Alshaer was born and raised in the Gaza Strip. He studied English Language and Literature for his BA at the University of Birzeit in the West Bank before completing his Masters and PhD from SOAS (University of London).
He is a poet, translator, and associate professor in Arabic language and culture at the University of Westminster. His publications include Poetry and Politics in the Modern Arab World (2016), A Map of Absence: An Anthology of Palestinian Writing on Gaza (2019), and Love and Poetry in the Middle East: Literature from Antiquity to the Present (2022).
In what ways does nature inspire or inform your work?
I have often marveled at the use of imagery of ‘local nature’ in poetry and its echoing and mirroring of human emotions, whether in pre-Islamic or modern Arabic poetry. Nature has been an indispensable source of solace and a reference of knowledge and metaphor for analyzing poetry and literature.
What does it mean to you to be part of a thriving ecosystem?
We are all part of the struggling human family, united by an indivisible ecosystem, and being part of a thriving ecosystem can only be positive and inspiring. I am reminded of the Qur’anic verse, which says that what is good (for humankind) stays on earth, and as for the froth (foam), it perishes. We can only strive towards the good of the planet and the ecosystem, as we are part of both and can only thrive if they thrive too.
