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deenahelm.bsky.social
Deena 🇵🇸 دينا
@deenahelm.bsky.social
3.5K followers 210 following 71 posts
author • palestinian • she/her • rep: @alexbrownwrites.bsky.social
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deenahelm.bsky.social
✨ COVER REVEAL ✨

I am THRILLED to share the cover for my debut novel, a horror about what happens to a Palestinian home after decades of occupation, and the lives of three Palestinian women who are connected to it. Coming September 22, 2026 - preorder here: linktr.ee/deenahelm
A cover for the debut novel OUR CUT OF SALT by Deena Helm, showing a dark green wallpaper and a hand ripping it away, revealing a flowery yellow pattern underneath. Tagline in the corner says, "The house is waiting for them."
February 4, 2026 at 4:01 PM
deenahelm.bsky.social
Super excited to say that my horror short story, The Blood Remains, was a finalist for the AAEF short story writing contest! 🖤
A graphic that says FINALIST at the top, with The Arab-American Educational Foundation's logo and a list of finalists, including Deena Helm.
January 27, 2026 at 8:03 PM
deenahelm.bsky.social
What makes a house haunted in Palestine? Is it the ghosts that linger - or is it something far more sinister?

Our Cut of Salt is about a haunted house in Palestine and the 3 generations of women who must discover the answer to this question for themselves. Preorder now: linktr.ee/deenahelm
Art by lunacwriting depicting three women of three different generations in front of a haunted house and a stormy sea, with a snippet of text from the book that says: None have remembered the horrors nor absorbed the blood from those murdered quite so well as the house in Haifa.
January 20, 2026 at 9:05 PM
deenahelm.bsky.social
The New Arab (@thenewarab.bsky.social) included Our Cut of Salt for their 2026 most anticipated releases 🇵🇸 if you want to preorder your copy (which helps tell publishers that you want more Palestinian stories!!), you can do so here: linktr.ee/deenahelm
Our Cut of Salt by Deena Helm Our Cut of Salt is a sinister, unflinching take on the haunted-house novel by Palestinian author Deena Helm. At the centre of the book is Nuhad's supposedly haunted childhood home in Haifa. When Nuhad, who has not returned to her home since the Nakba in 1948, passes away, her granddaughter, Marina, is determined to visit her grandmother's home after a lifetime of being kept in the dark about her culture and family history. But something sinister happens, and three generations of women converge on the family home; they must reckon with the price of the past.
December 17, 2025 at 4:03 PM
deenahelm.bsky.social
Help email, call, and pressure media to get this story out: tinyurl.com/FREETHOXHA
A tweet from Nerdeen Kiswani that states: Teuta Hoxha, a 28-year-old Palestine Action activist, is on her 20th day of a hunger strike in a UK prison. She’s refusing food because prison authorities stripped her of basic rights—her library job, classes, even her mail. Her blood sugar is collapsing. She’s at risk of death.
September 1, 2025 at 1:32 AM
deenahelm.bsky.social
She's Publisher's Marketplace official! ♥️🇵🇸

If you're interested in book about a haunted house that fights back against its occupiers - and the three generations of Palestinian women who are bound to it - then look out September 2026 from Tor Nightfire and Orbit UK!
A screenshot from Publisher’s Marketplace that states: Deena Helm's OUR CUT OF SALT, an upmarket horror in which three generations of Palestinian women converge in their ancestral haunted home and must learn what the price of the past truly is, exploring generational trauma, grief, and the horrors of the Israeli occupation, to Kristin Temple at Nightfire, in a significant deal, at auction, in a two-book deal, for publication in September 2026, by Alex Brown at Mad Woman Literary Agency (NA). Rights also to Nadia Saward at Orbit UK, by Anna Carmichael at Abner Stein, on behalf of Taryn Fagerness Agency and Mad Woman Literary. Translation: Taryn Fagerness
July 29, 2025 at 7:00 PM
deenahelm.bsky.social
To simply imagine Palestine without settlers, to simply imagine a sky without drones—that, in the Zionist imagination, is genocidal. If you stick with the “want” of the charge, the notion that Palestinians want to kill all Jews, you find that Zionism is at war with our future. It is at war with our ability to articulate, even if only through poems and protest chants, a future in which Zionism does not reign. For in the past 100 years, Zionism has situated us in a condition of constant dispossession and premature death; our Nakba remains and renews. We are besieged in an inescapable, eternal present tense.
July 1, 2025 at 8:44 PM
deenahelm.bsky.social
eSIMs are super vital for Palestinians in Gaza to stay connected + share what’s happening, they cost like $20-40, and they’re really really easy to buy and donate. Take this as your sign to donate one now
Screenshot that says: Yes only people with eSIMs can use the internet now in Gaza and beat the isolation. Donate: Nomad (ISRAEL) - Highly needed Discount code: NOMADCNG Airalo (DISCOVER) Truely (Israel) Discount code: TRUELYCNG Send a clear QR code screenshot to: Gazaesims@gmail.com
June 16, 2025 at 12:36 AM
deenahelm.bsky.social
14,000 babies
14,000 babies
14,000 babies
Article with text: Middle East crisis live UN warns 14,000 babies could die in Gaza in next 48 hours without aid - Israel - Gaza war live
May 20, 2025 at 6:17 PM
deenahelm.bsky.social
New short story out with @sotospeakjournal.bsky.social! Grab a copy if you want a Palestinian time loop story: sotospeak.submittable.com/submit/25741...
A picture of the winter edition
March 7, 2025 at 10:04 PM
deenahelm.bsky.social
My first official piece of published flash fiction is out in Fikra Magazine ❣️ I cannot describe how honored I am to have my first piece out with a Palestinian literary magazine & have it be in both Arabic and English (translated by Yasmin Haj) 🇵🇸
The English version of the piece, titled MY ANGER. DM or comment for a full alt text version The Arabic version of the piece, titled MY ANGER. DM or comment for a full alt text version
February 21, 2025 at 11:42 PM
deenahelm.bsky.social
Editors, look out for this Pachinko-style multigenerational family saga of one Palestinian family! 👀
A moodboard of several photos from Palestine with text that says: WITHIN THESE SEEDS A MULTIGENERATIONAL PALESTINIAN FAMILY SAGA BY: DEENA HELM REPRESENTED BY: ALEX BROWN @ MAD WOMAN LITERARY
February 18, 2025 at 7:59 PM
deenahelm.bsky.social
✨ I AM AGENTED! ✨

I am so incredibly thrilled to announce that I am now represented by @alexbrownwrites.bsky.social at Mad Woman Literary Agency! Her enthusiasm and passion for my historical fiction (and beyond 👀) blew me away and I'm so excited to be working with her!
A graphic of Deena with text that says, "AGENTED / AGENTED / AGENTED / Now represented by Alex Brown of Mad Woman Literary Agency"
February 18, 2025 at 7:58 PM