Amna Alnaami, Gaza

Amna is an Illuminated Cities 2025 Poetry of the Camps-Gaza fellow.

Amna is a 21-year-old poet and software engineering student from Gaza. While her academic path is in technology and programming, her true passion has always been for poetry and literature. She writes so that readers might see themselves in her words so they might feel understood, valued, and less alone. Her work carries her own pain and the pain of her people, a reminder that Palestinians are not just numbers; they are lives once filled with dreams, families, and homes.

Having lived through two years of war - that have felt like centuries - Amna still dreams of a safe and simple life, rich with joy and achievement for all in Gaza. She believes in the power of words to bear witness, to resist, and to keep hope alive.

In her words, “My thoughts pursue me, and I carry both my mind and my heart through every turn. I maneuver, I resist, I throw all my cards, and sometimes I lose. Yet writing is never a defeat; it is both faith and refuge when everything else closes in. It is where my thoughts find shelter, where my soul finds voice. To me, that is the true meaning of strength and survival.”