Songs for the Dead and the Living with Sara M. Saleh

When the ground beneath your feet is always shifting, how can you ever know where you belong? Jamilah has always believed she knows where her home is: in a house above a paint shop on the outskirts of Beirut, with her large, chaotic, loving family. But she soon learns that as Palestinian refugees, her family's life in Lebanon is precarious, and they must try to blend in even as they fight to retain their identity. When conflict comes to Beirut, Jamilah's world fractures, and the family is forced to flee to Cairo: another escape, and another slip further away from Palestine, the homeland to which they cannot return. In the end, Jamilah will have to choose between everything she knows and pursuing a life she can truly call her own. Songs for the Dead and the Living is a coming-of-age tale played out across generations and continents, from Palestine to Australia. Through stunning prose, acclaimed writer and human-rights activist Sara M Saleh offers a breathtaking portrait of the fragilities and flaws of family in the wake of war, and the love it takes to overcome great loss.

Sara M Saleh is a human rights lawyer, community organiser, writer, and the daughter of migrants from Palestine, Egypt, and Lebanon, living on Gadigal land. Her poems and short stories have been published in English and Arabic in various national and international outlets and anthologies including Australian Poetry Journal, Cordite Poetry Review, Meanjin, Overland Journal, and Rabbit Poetry. She is co-editor of the groundbreaking 2019 anthology Arab, Australian, Other: Stories on Race and Identity. Sara is the first poet to win both the Australian Book Review’s 2021 Peter Porter Poetry Prize and the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize 2020. Her debut novel is Songs for the Dead and the Living (with Affirm Press) and she is working on a full-length poetry collection, The Flirtation of Girls (UQP 2023).

Amani Haydar is an award-winning artist, writer and advocate for women's health and safety based in Western Sydney. Her memoir The Mother Wound (Pan Macmillan) released 2021, explores the personal and political dimensions of abuse and inter-generational trauma and been shortlisted for the 2022 Victorian Premier's Literary Award. In 2021, Amani received the UTS Law Alumni Award and, in 2020, she was named NSW Local Woman of The Year for Bankstown in recognition of her advocacy against gender-based violence. Using visual art and writing to tell stories and activate empathy, Amani's work has been featured in several exhibitions and publications including the 2018 Archibald Prize, Sweatshop Women Volume Two, SBS Voices and ABC News Online.