Longlisted for the 2026 Stella Prize
Micaela Sahhar – Find Me at the Jaffa Gate: An encyclopaedia of a Palestinian family
Nonfiction/Memoir · NewSouth Publishing
About the Book
‘If we were different people, to write down these words might be to leave them behind us. But words are our artifacts, and I am seeding a trail for the journey, home.’
What does the daughter of a Nakba survivor inherit? It is not property or tangible heirlooms, nor the streets and neighbourhoods of a father’s childhood and the deep roots of family who have lived in one place, Jerusalem, for generation upon generation.
Fixing her gaze on moments, places and objects – from the streets of Bethlehem to the Palestinian neighbourhoods of the New Jerusalem – Micaela Sahhar assembles a story of Palestinian diaspora. Find Me at the Jaffa Gate is a book about the gaps and blank spaces that cannot be easily recounted, but which insists on the vibrant reality of chance, fragments and memory to reclaim a place called home.
“Find Me at the Jaffa Gate is a tender, absorbing family memoir about Palestinian diaspora keeping traditions alive even as they lose home and history… A lyrical lament on loss and ritual, and the recovery of meaning.”
– 2026 Stella Prize Judges
About the Author
Micaela Sahhar
Micaela Sahhar is an Australian–Palestinian writer and educator living on Wurundjeri Country. Her essays, poetry and commentary have appeared in Cordite, Meanjin, Overland, Rabbit and Sydney Review of Books, among others. She is a Wheeler Centre Next Chapter Fellow (2021), a grant recipient from the Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund (2022), and was commended for the Peter Blazey Fellowship (2024). She is the author of Find Me at the Jaffa Gate: An encyclopaedia of a Palestinian family (NewSouth, 2025).
Further Reading
Reviews
“[Through] beautiful prose, Sahhar pulls together a story, full of gaps and questions, about her Palestinian family, their memories and their connection to home.” – Celina Ribeiro, Guardian Australia
“Find Me at the Jaffa Gate is more than a lyrical memoir that binds personal storytelling with global history; Sahhar has built an archive for future generations. Readers interested in tales of migration and ancestral history will find a treasure trove in Sahhar’s emotive and detailed offering.” – Hellai Gul, Books+Publishing
“No book is as essential for these past two years as Micaela Sahhar’s Find Me at the Jaffa Gate.” – Winnie Dunn, Sydney Morning Herald
Links
Judges’ Report
Find Me at the Jaffa Gate is a tender, absorbing family memoir about Palestinian diaspora, living across three continents, keeping traditions alive even as they lose home and history. At the centre of this book is a journey the author took to Jerusalem to visit the family home her grandfather built, a home that has loomed large in the collective memory. It’s a generative offering, a work that brings together people, stories and ideas. It consists of 48 entries symbolising the 1948 Nakba that displaced the author’s family and eventually led them to Melbourne. Sahhar writes lyrically and surprisingly, capturing many voices and characters across history and place. Real people are summoned warmly in these pages, from the author’s relationship with her father, to a friendship with the late historian Patrick Wolfe. Rarely heavy-hearted, the memoir is filled with wry humour and sharp observation. Through the inclusion of photographs, family narrative and personal political history, Sahhar offers tender portraits of resistance, which flow into a thoughtful exploration of living on Aboriginal land as an Australian-Palestinian. The book is a lyrical lament on loss and ritual, and the recovery of meaning. ‘Look here, I have built our beautiful home out of words,’ Sahhar writes. A rousing achievement.
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