You can read more about my most recent books, and other publications, further down this page.
War-torn Voices: Ukrainian Women's Poetry
Published by Linen Press, London.
Scroll down for more information.
Gaza: The Power to Live
Available on Amazon. Published by Open Books, Barcelona, in English/French and Spanish/Catala editons.
Scroll down for more information.
Gaza: La fuerza de vivir
Hairan
Poems of Hair and Freedom by Iranian Women in Times of Repression and Struggle
Currently available worldwide in bookshops and on the web.
Scroll down for more information.
Ukraine at War
Street Art, Posters + Poetry
Currently available worldwide in bookshops and on the web.
Scroll down for more information.
Bosnian War Posters
Currently available worldwide in bookshops and on the web.
Scroll down for more information.
Evil Doesn't Live Here:
Posters from the Bosnian War
Published in two editions (US and UK) in 2001. Copies can still be found worldwide. Search online.
I am currently working on two new publications:
- A book about the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, including images of his childhood house. With fragments of his writing and third-person testimonies of his birthplace home.
- A lexicon of film editing terms and expressions for film students and anyone interested in the art of film editing.
Eye Magazine
Scroll down for more information
WAR-TORN VOICES: UKRAINIAN WOMEN'S POETRY
Ukrainian poetry, against a backdrop of violence and erasure, is, paradoxically, blooming. This anthology of women poets gathers together some of Ukraine’s most urgent voices: work by soldier-poets, work from deep behind the lines, work that bears witness both to the fracturing of lives, and the determination to go on.
Charlotte Higgins, Chief culture writer, the Guardian
This important anthology is both artistically authoritative and heart-breaking. No other I know of contains poems by women engaged in active combat.
Ruth Padel, poet and author
Amid the devastation of war, Ukrainian poetry has not fallen silent. On the contrary, it continues to speak with clarity, courage, and urgency.
This collection brings together the voices of twelve Ukrainian women poets who write during a time of national catastrophe. Their poems give shape to grief, longing, anger, tenderness, and the fierce will to live. Some, written far from the battlefield and haunted by it, reflect on separation, uncertainty, loss, love, and defiance. Others, written on the battlefield itself, give us a unique and personal perspective on war rarely encountered in any language.
These voices form a powerful chorus against erasure, and preserve a vital part of Ukrainian literary culture during a critical moment in the history of the country, of Europe, and the world.
The fifty unforgettable poems in this illustrated anthology also remind us of the enduring beauty of the human spirit in times of horror and grief.
GAZA: THE POWER TO LIVE
Behind every number in this devastating book is a name, a face, a story. Together, the numbers bear witness to both loss and unshakeable resilience.
Hamza Ali, Co-founder of
Watermelon Pictures
A poetic, visual, and human tribute to the victims of a tragedy that must not be forgotten.
In this profoundly moving book, Daoud Sarhandi-Williams offers an act of mourning, remembrance, and resistance in the face of the genocide in Gaza, which began in October 2023. Through a powerful juxtaposition between the delicate 19th-century floral paintings of Swiss missionary Hannah Zeller and the relentless listing of the dead – from 1 to 51,157 – the book transforms the horror of numbers into tangible humanity and becomes an act of reverence for the dead.
A brief preface introduces the reader to the richness of Palestinian poetry, which accompanies the images with voice, emotion, and depth, offering a space for reflection in the face of a loss as vast as it is heartbreaking.
Every page pulses with the echo of silenced lives, but also with the strength of a memory that refuses to surrender.
Published in September 2025 by Open Books, Barcelona, in English/French and Spanish/Catalan editions.
HAIRAN: POEMS OF HAIR AND FREEDOM BY IRANIAN WOMEN IN TIMES OF REPRESSION AND STRUGGLE
Seventy-six poems by 76 contemporary female Iranian poets form the core of this anthology.
The poems were commissioned, collected, and edited following the death in September 2022 of Mahsa Amini. She was murdered in Tehran after a confrontation with Iran’s Morality Police. Her crime: not wearing her hijab correctly, and revealing too much hair.
In this anthology, recognised female poets of all generations and from all parts of Iran—as well as many from across Iran's diaspora—write poems inspired by the plight of women in their country, where a 21st century women’s revolution is taking place.
Hairan also includes a haunting series of hair portraits taken by some of the poets, and several protest posters by Iranian designers.
Hairan was published in late 2024, by Scotland Street Press, Edinburgh.
UKRAINE AT WAR: STREET ART, POSTERS + POETRY
I was in Kyiv, Ukraine, for three weeks in August 2022. I took photos, met artists, and gathered material for a book about popular art during the war.
Ukraine At War - with a Foreword by Andrey Kurkov and an Introduction by Emma Mateo - includes 18 new war poems written by Ukrainian citizens from all over the country.
Ukraine At War was published in late 2023 by Interlink Books. It is distributed by Simon & Schuster.
LOOK INSIDE
Content from Youtube can't be displayed due to your current cookie settings. To show this content, please click "Consent & Show" to confirm that necessary data will be transferred to Youtube to enable this service. Further information can be found in our Privacy Policy. Changed your mind? You can revoke your consent at any time via your cookie settings.
WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT THIS BOOK
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"British filmmaker Sarhandi-Williams (Bosnian War Posters) spotlights the perseverance of art during war in this insightful collection of poetry and street art created by Ukrainians since the 2022 Russian invasion."
THE GUARDIAN
"Six months after the war broke out in Ukraine, Daoud Sarhandi-Williams headed to Kyiv to photograph the city’s street art – and discovered images that capture the hopes and fears of a city."
Read more
FOREWORD
“This book will guide you through today’s Ukraine more honestly than any future history might.”
Andrey Kurkov, Ukrainian writer and author, wrote the foreword.
BOSNIAN WAR POSTERS
Published in 2022 to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the start of the Bosnian War, this powerful book is available from Interlink Books.
It is distributed worldwide by Simon & Schuster.
Principal texts are in original English, with Bosnian language translations.
LOOK INSIDE
Content from Youtube can't be displayed due to your current cookie settings. To show this content, please click "Consent & Show" to confirm that necessary data will be transferred to Youtube to enable this service. Further information can be found in our Privacy Policy. Changed your mind? You can revoke your consent at any time via your cookie settings.
WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT THIS BOOK
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“Filmmaker Sarhandi (Evil Doesn’t Live Here) delivers an unusual history of the Bosnian War (1992–1995) focused on propaganda posters created and distributed by various players in the conflict."
Read more
BOJAN HADŽIHALILOVIČ
Trio studios, Sarajevo
“Bosnian War Posters is, without a doubt, one of the most significant books about the war in Bosnia. It is not a romanticised visual biography of the conflict, but an almost punky book about good and bad, love and death, the role of the media, and the truth.”
Bojan Hadžihalilović, a founder member of Trio Studios (Sarajevo), wrote the foreword.
CAROL WELLS
Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG), Los Angeles
"The book is an important contribution to understanding the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It also shows the value of posters as primary historical documentation. Most poster books use graphics to illustrate their perspective; this one uses them to illustrate the complexity of the struggle and the fluidity of the sides—an important lesson for understanding social movements or wars, or anything else for that matter. The way the posters are used is exactly what CSPG is trying to do."
Carol Wells, the founder and president of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics (Los Angeles), wrote the introduction
Eye magazine
"Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture."
Eye magazine
From Mexico, between 2002 and 2021, I wrote a series of socially-themed articles (as well as blogs) for London-based quarterly Eye.
These texts can be read on the Eye website, although they are not accompanied by the images curated by me and included in the original print versions.
I consider the first article I wrote for Eye in 2002 to be the best and most important:
In Any Colour So Long As It’s White: Why does Mexican advertising look nothing like the Mexicans?
Click here for other texts