Culture & Arts
Palestinian author Hooda Shawa explores memory and inheritance through family stories
Image credit: ArabLit
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Hooda Shawa has offered insight into her writing process while crafting a personal novel centered on Palestinian grandmothers and the memories they pass down through generations. The work draws on intimate family narratives to examine how women preserve and transmit cultural and historical knowledge within Palestinian society.
Shawa reflected on her experience as an author navigating the emotional and creative demands of translating deeply personal material into fiction. Her novel engages with the theme of intergenerational inheritance—how sittis, the Arabic word for grandmothers, become custodians of family memory and Palestinian identity.
