Audio 27

In September 2025, Palestinian writer Alaa Al-Qaisi was able to leave Gaza on a student visa. In January 2026 she arrived in Berlin for a residency in Wannsee, part of a program for writers in exile. At the end of the residency, a public reading was scheduled. It did not take place as planned. The event was cancelled and moved to a smaller, private venue, and the exile program that had invited her was defunded.

While this was happening, Alaa was writing a Berlin diary that absorbed the cancellation and the atmosphere around it. The essay became a record of what it means to write when the possibility of being heard is no longer certain.

In this episode of Writers Read, Alaa reads the essay in her own voice.

Read “Better Than Berlin” on Berlin Review: https://blnreview.de/en/ausgaben/2026-04/alaa-alqaisi-besser-als-berlin

Subscribe to Berlin Review — essays, criticism, and fiction from around the world. From €5/month: https://blnreview.de/en/subscribe

Airlift is produced in the Studio of Jacobin Germany. Hosted by Tobias Haberkorn, Editor of Berlin Review. Audio production by Kaitlin Roberts.