Pages of Hackney hosts an evening of rolling author readings to raise funds for two essential organisations in Gaza.
The Sameer Project is a Palestinian-led medical care organisation for Gaza. Their mission is to provide essential medical treatment and supplies to individuals and families in Gaza who require it most urgently, and crucially they utilise existing products in the market that will not need to cross any borders.
The Arab Group for the Protection of Nature (APN) is dedicated to protecting natural resources amidst the increasing challenges and threats they face, particularly as a result of conflicts, wars and occupation. Funds raised will be donated to their Gaza Farms Revitalization Project which aims to rehabilitate Gaza’s agricultural sector, restore local food systems to combat famine and blockade, and establish food sovereignty.
All proceeds from ticket sales and book sales during the event will be divided equally and donated to The Sameer Project and APN.
We are extremely grateful to all authors who are reading without a fee, the Round Chapel who have waived their venue fee for the Old School Rooms for this event, and to Pages of Hackney staff who are working the event unwaged so that all proceeds can be donated.
Authors
Ahmed Masoud is the author of the acclaimed novels Vanished: The Mysterious Disappearance of Mustafa Ouda and Come What May. Ahmed is a writer, poet and director who grew up in Gaza, Palestine, and moved to the UK in 2002. Ahmed’s theatre and radio drama credits include The Florist of Rafah (2024); Passports, Jinn, Mo Salah and Other Complicated Things (2023); Application 39 (WDR Radio, Germany, 2018); Camouflage (London, 2017); The Shroud Maker (London, 2015—still touring); Walaa, Loyalty (London, 2014, funded by the Arts Council England); and Escape from Gaza (BBC Radio 4, 2011).
Mira Mattar writes fiction, poetry and essays. She is the author of Yes, I Am a Destroyer, Affiliation, The Bow and And most of all I would miss the shadows of the tree’s own leaves cast upon its trunk by the orange streetlight in the sweet blue darks of spring. Mira lives and works in London.
Sophie Robinson is a poet, novelist and teacher. Her poetry collection Rabbit came out in 2018. She runs the online creative writing workshop ‘Devotion’. Her first novel, Prairie Oyster, comes out in February 2026.
Zena Agha is a Palestinian-Iraqi writer, poet and multi-disciplinary artist from London. She is the author of Objects from April and May (Hajar Press, April 2022).
Lara Pawson lives on the edge of London, close to the forest. She is the author of three books. Spent Light (CB editions, 2024) is a hybrid text combining fiction, history and memoir. It was shortlisted for The Goldsmiths Prize 2024 and was a book of the year in Frieze, New Statesman, The Guardian and The TLS. This is The Place to Be (CB editions, 2016), a memoir, was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2017, the Bread & Roses Award for Radical Publishing 2017 and the PEN Ackerley Prize 2017. In the Name of the People (IB Tauris, 2014), an investigation into a massacre in Angola, was longlisted for the Orwell Book Prize 2015 and was runner-up in the Royal Africa Society Book of the Year 2014. Formerly a BBC World Service journalist, she has made numerous radio programmes and has written for the national and international press on politics, literature and art.
Nadine El Enany is a writer and poet. She is author of (B)ordering Britain: Law, race and empire (Manchester University Press, 2020), co-author of Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British State (Pluto Press, 2021), and co-editor of After Grenfell: Violence, Resistance and Response (Pluto Press, 2019). Her poetry has appeared in a number of poetry magazines including Butcher’s Dog, Magma, Propel Magazine, 14 Magazine, fourteen poems, Gutter Magazine and Poetry Wales. She was shortlisted for the 2023 Poetry London Pamphlet Prize and longlisted for the 2023 Rialto Nature and Place Poetry Competition and the 2022 Fish Poetry Prize. She won the James Berry Poetry Prize in 2024 and her first collection is out with Bloodaxe in 2026.
Faisal Hussain creates work that questions perceptions, undermines lazy stereotypes, and highlights missing histories and overlooked facts. Whether in music, a gallery or a sign outside a kebab shop, his cross-disciplinary practice is often presented in varied environments to engage with diverse audiences. Using discovered archives and personal memory as starting points, his work explores the representation and understanding of South Asian culture and identity through the media, government, communities and individuals. His recent work See it, Say it, Genocide was displayed in Birmingham, Coventry and London in January 2025, with support from BUILDHOLLYWOOD. Due to several complaints, they were taken down early. Complaints were made in Birmingham and London.
Nida Sajid is a postdisciplinary educator, organiser and writer. She holds an MA in Cultural Studies from Birkbeck, University of London, specialising in experimental literature. Her debut work of short fiction, COOP: A Novelette, is forthcoming with Hajar Press in December 2025.