Yahia Lababidi

Yahia Lababidi is an Arab American writer of Palestinian heritage and the author of sixteen books of poetry, aphorisms, essays and conversations.

His new book is a collection of essays on conscience and witness: If You Cannot Say Genocide (New Village Press, 2026). Forthcoming in early 2027 is Wherever You Are: Essays from East to West (Ayin Press) available for pre-order, now.

Recent books include On the Contrary: Wilde and Nietzsche (Fomite Press, 2025), a meditation on two kindred contrarians, and What Remains to Be Said (Wild Goose Publications, 2025), a gathering of three decades of aphorisms. Poetry from Palestine Wail (Daraja Press, 2024) was translated into multiple languages. He is a five-time Pushcart Prize nominee.

Lababidi's writing appears in Liberties, Salmagundi, The New Statesman, The Threepenny Review, Sojourners, World Literature Today, The New Arab, and DAWN. His work has been featured on PBS NewsHour, NPR, and On Being. He has served as a juror for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, as a judge for the PEN/Heim Translation Fund, and has spoken at Oxford University and literary festivals across four continents.