The Nightmare Sequence
Published on 31. October 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
172 pages
978-1-0687515-5-4 (ISBN)
Description
The Nightmare Sequence is a searing response to the atrocities in Gaza and beyond since October 2023. Heartbreaking and humane, it is a necessary portrait of the violence committed by Israel and its Western allies.
Through poetry and visual art, Omar Sakr and Safdar Ahmed capture these historic injustices, while also critiquing the role of art and media - including their own - in this time. Born of collective suffering and despair, their collaboration interrogates the position of witness: the terrible and helpless distance of vision, the impact of being exposed to violence of this scale on a daily basis, and what it means to live in a society that is actively participating in the catastrophic destruction of Arabs and Muslims overseas.
With a foreword by Palestinian American poet George Abraham, The Nightmare Sequence is an insightful work of testimony that also considers how art is complicit in Empire. This transcendent book invokes the power of poetry and art to shift hearts and minds; it will serve as a vital record in decades to come.
Through poetry and visual art, Omar Sakr and Safdar Ahmed capture these historic injustices, while also critiquing the role of art and media - including their own - in this time. Born of collective suffering and despair, their collaboration interrogates the position of witness: the terrible and helpless distance of vision, the impact of being exposed to violence of this scale on a daily basis, and what it means to live in a society that is actively participating in the catastrophic destruction of Arabs and Muslims overseas.
With a foreword by Palestinian American poet George Abraham, The Nightmare Sequence is an insightful work of testimony that also considers how art is complicit in Empire. This transcendent book invokes the power of poetry and art to shift hearts and minds; it will serve as a vital record in decades to come.
Reviews / Votes
Read cover to cover, it evokes Sakr's excruciating, sometimes bewildered, experience of bearing daily witness from afar . . . As the people of Palestine continue to suffer systemic violence and dehumanisation, this is urgent, essential work. -The Guardian A searing response to the endless deluge of atrocities that have been committed in Gaza by Israeli forces since October 2023. A stark and painful interrogation of the act of witnessing... -Lit HubMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 227 mm
Width: 153 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
286 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-0687515-5-4 (9781068751554)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
The Nightmare Sequence brings together poetry from Omar Sakr and illustrations by artist Safdar Ahmed with a scholarly introduction by Palestinian writer George Abraham. Sakr is the acclaimed author of the novel Son of Sin and three poetry collections, including The Lost Arabs, which won the 2020 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry in Australia; and Safdar Ahmed, an award-winning artist, writer, musician and cultural worker. Ahmed's graphic novel Still Alive won the Multicultural NSW Award and was named Book of the Year in the 2022 NSW Premier's Literary Awards. Safdar is a founding member of the Refugee Art Project and a member of eleven, a collective of contemporary Muslim Australian artists, curators and writers. George Abraham is the author of Birthright which won the Arab American Book Award and was a Lambda Literary Award finalist. Abraham is also the executive editor of MIZNA.