Batool Abu Akleen is a poet and translator from Gaza, Palestine. 

At fifteen, she won the Barjeel Poetry Prize for her poem ‘It Wasn’t Me Who Stole the Cloud’, which was included in the Italian anthology Of Water and Time. 

Her poetry has been translated into several languages, including English and Italian.

Presenting one of her poems here:

In a stifling refugee camp
from under a plastic shelter
A giant ogre is created out of the sobbing 
With every missile, he grows
He moves his bare foot
I am nearly smashed
But, as always, I survive
I run away
To my shelter
To my phone
To my thumbs
I write
I translate
I read poems out loud
I gather them all from the throat of my heart
Then I turn the poems into flowers
And spread them
on my beloveds’ graves
Their scent pervades
May it strike your soul.