Mohammed el-Kurd is an award-winning poet, writer, journalist, and organizer from Jerusalem in occupied Palestine. He is the author of Rifqa (Haymarket Books, 2021). el-Kurd earned an MFA in creative writing from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York and a BFA from the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD). In 2021, along with his twin sister, Muna el-Kurd, he was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. The siblings are founders of the #SaveSheikhJarrah grassroots campaign, a movement created in opposition to settler colonialism intended to protect Palestinian families who are facing imminent forced eviction from their homes.

el-Kurd was awarded the Arab American Civic Council’s Truth in Media Award in 2022 and the Cultural Freedom Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation in 2021. He is a Civic Media Fellow at the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California. He has lectured and performed around the world, including as the keynote for the 2023 annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture at Princeton University, at the Internazionale literary festival in Ferrara, Italy, and at Adelaide Writers’ Week in Australia. 

el-Kurd appears frequently as a commentator for major TV networks, and his writing has been published in numerous international publications. He serves as the first-ever Palestine Correspondent for The Nation.