Benefit for Writers Still Under Siege in Gaza

Join us at Gallery 44 for presentations by writers Nyla Matuk, Gavin Barrett, Sarah Abu-Sharar, and Yahya Al Hamarna.

Pay what you can: all tickets offer the same general admission, with higher prices sending more to writers based in Gaza. All profits will be split between Yahya Al Hamarna and the authors of Coastal Lines Press collective. 

Doors Open at 4:30pm. Presentations begin at 5pm. 

Yahya AL Hamarna (prerecorded) is a Palestinian writer, researcher, and refugee located in the Gaza Strip. He studied Political Science, International Relations, and Diplomacy at Al-Azhar University in Gaza. His writing focuses on human rights, justice, international law, and global politics, while his poetry explores memory, exile, love, and survival in times of war. His work carves deeply into the living memory of Palestine, preserving the voices, places, and everyday moments that violence seeks to eraseHis poignant debut poetry collection, My Voice Cannot Be Bombed, was published by Iskra Books in 2025. Through social media, excerpts have travelled around the world, and a full French translation by Elissa Kayal and Nada Sattouf has most recently been published by Éditions de la Rue Dorion in Quebec and Burn∼Août in France.

Nyla Matuk was born in Winnipeg and lives in Montreal. She is the author of two critically acclaimed books of poetry: Sumptuary Laws, shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award, and Stranger. She is also the editor of an anthology of poems, Resisting Canada. 

Gavin Barrett is a poet and the author of Understan, a collection of poems published by Mawenzi House in June 2020. Understan is a CBC Books recommendation. Gavin was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), of Anglo-Indian and Goan East African parentage. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from St. Xavier’s College, Bombay, and an M.A. in English Literature from Bombay University. After leaving Bombay, he lived in Hong Kong for several years before immigrating to Canada. [photograph by Richard Picton]

Sarah Abu-Sharar comes from a long line of Storytellers on her paternal side. She is an award-winning storyteller, recognized by the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Morocco and Storytelling Toronto with the Ann Smyth Travel Award. With her passion for storytelling, Sarah has shared her stories. lectures and workshops at festivals across the globe, including Canada, Norway, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia, Tunisia, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, and Cuba. Because Sarah grew up in several countries, she tells stories from around the world, with a focus on Palestinian and Croatian stories, where her roots lie. Her favourite stories promote social change. As a trained Expressive Arts Therapist, Sarah often incorporates stories into her therapeutic practice. She has used Storytelling as a therapeutic tool with children in refugee camps in Palestine and with refugee children in Toronto. She works at the Parent Child Mother Goose Program using traditional storytelling with at-risk communities to encourage parent-child bonding. Sarah is a member of the collective "Musical Story Studio," where music and stories are combined. Sarah tells stories so she may go deep inside the tales and find herself in far-away magical places that she remembers from long, long ago. [Photo Credit: Jan Roar Nilsen, Fortellerfestivalen]