Palestine is everywhere and 28 Magazine: Conversation with Mahmoud al-Shaer and Muhammad al-Zaqzouq

Mahmoud al-Shaer and Muhammad al-Zaqzouq used to run a magazine in Gaza called 28 Magazine, a platform for writers and artists on the ground. They had to halt their operations for the past two and a half years due to the genocide, but have now created a special edition of the magazine in collaboration with the Palestine is everywhere digital platform. This issue of 28 Magazine reflects on the complex state of living in a suspended war, and the devastating reality in Gaza after the declaration of a so-called ceasefire on the 11th of October 2025.

Muhammad al-Zaqzouq, one of the book's talented contributors, will be joining the conversation on Zoom from Gaza, circumstances permitting. He will be in conversation with Mahmoud al-Shaer, a gifted poet and editor of 28 Magazine; together they will reflect on the power of testimony: as written record, as an act of history-making, as a means of preserving memory, and as a form with its own distinct and enduring literary ambitions.

Co-published by TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Silver Press, and the87Press, and edited by  Skye Arundhati Thomas, Edwin Nasr and Gloria Habsburg, Palestine is everywhere is a contributor-led anthology of testimony, poetry, essays, and artworks from Gaza and beyond. This editorial project, initiated in 2023, expands in 2026 with a series of commissioned visual, sonic, and multimedia works presented on a dynamic digital platform, bringing it into the present tense. 

*All royalties from this project will be donated to Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and The Arab Group for the Protection of Nature (APN).

Mahmoud M. Al-Shaer is a Palestinian writer, poet, and cultural organiser from Rafah. Editor-in-chief of 28 Magazine and founder of 28 Gallery, he works across literary and visual practices to explore memory, collaboration, and cultural resistance. He has coordinated projects with institutions including the Goethe-Institut and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, co-curated the New Alphabet School at HKW Berlin, and presented work at the 12th Berlin Biennial. His recent book I Am Still Alive: Dispatches from Gaza (K. Verlag, 2025) reflects on writing as an existential and political act under siege.

Muhammad Al-Zaqzouq is a writer, editor, and researcher from Khan Younis, Gaza. His poetry collection Betrayed by the Soothsayers received the 2018 Al Khalili Prize for Poetry, and he is the co-editor, with Mahmoud Alshaer, of Letters from Gaza (Penguin Random House, 2025). He has worked tirelessly on bringing Gaza’s writings to the world. His own words have appeared in places like The New York Review of Books Online, The Berlin Review, and have also been translated into five European languages.