Maktaba: Bookshop-in-Residence
Books for London, from the world.
Opening hours:
Wednesday – Sunday
11am – 6pm
Maktaba, the Bookshop-in-Residence at Ibraaz, is operated by Burley Fisher Books and curated by the Palestine Festival of Literature (PalFest).
Bringing together publishing, politics, and art, Maktaba features a selection of books and printed matter in dialogue with Ibraaz’s programming—spanning critical theory, literature, and visual culture from across the world.
Maktaba Recommends
Foraging Fireflies by Supermelon
زهر القندول / Foraging Fireflies is a first publication by سوبربطيخ / SuperMelon, a Palestinian cultural food sovereignty initiative founded by Hasnae and Besma, two diaspora Moroccan women. In April 2023, they gathered local farmers, artists, activists and researchers in Ramallah to forage wild plants, cook, perform, discuss and workshop the centrality of food to land to sovereignty. With the relentless escalation of Israel’s genocide in Palestine, as the afterlife of this Foraging Fireflies Festival is turned to a death world, this publication is ‘a living archive that refuses to let voices and truths fade, even in the darkest times.
Read the full blog post here.
Burley Fisher Books
Founded in 2016 by Jason Burley and Sam Fisher, Burley Fisher Books is an independent bookshop based in Hackney, London. Known for its focus on small press publishing, Burley Fisher has twice been voted London’s Best Independent Bookshop (2021 and 2022).
Alongside its vibrant events programme—featuring regular launches, readings, and an annual literary festival—the bookshop runs a Risograph print service and operates Burley Fisher Press, a community-focused zine press supporting experimental and independent voices.
The Palestine Festival of Literature
The Palestine Festival of Literature (PalFest) began as an annual festival in Palestine in 2008, bringing international writers to stage free, public events with their Palestinian counterparts in cities across historic Palestine. Over the past seventeen years hundreds of writers have taken part in PalFest projects - both in Palestine and internationally.
For the Maktaba, PalFest is curating an expanding selection of books around a core pillar of Palestinian literature, with special selections on - for starters - Kashmir, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt and Turtle Island selected by PalFest authors.
There will be a rotating publishers’ spotlight, starting with Cairo’s bi-lingual Kayfa-Ta editions alonside London's Tilted Axis Press. There will be zines from Gaza, Arabic language children's books and cutting edge regional magazines - all available now for the first time in the UK.
We were honoured to be asked to help build Ibraaz's new home, and hope with this selection we can offer London books and ideas to better illuminate its contested histories, current complexities, and ever-changing potential.
