Taha Muhammad Ali was born in Saffuriya, a village in Galilee, Palestine, in 1931. He attended primary school but was unable to continue his formal education because it was his duty, as a boy, to support his family. During the Arab-Israeli War in 1948 his village suffered from heavy bombing.
Rabai al-Madhoun was born in 1945 in al-Majdal, near Ashkelon, just north of today’s Gaza Strip. During the Palestinian War of 1948, he and his Palestinian family had to leave Ashkelon for Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. Al-Madhoun went on to study in Cairo and Alexandria, but was thrown
The Palestinian-Icelandic writer, poet, translator, and journalist Mazen Maarouf was born in Beirut in 1978 to Palestinian refugees who had fled Tel al-Zaatar at the start of the Lebanese civil war. He studied chemistry at the Lebanese University, after which he worked as a chemistry and physics teacher for several
Mahmoud Shukair was born in Jerusalem in 1941. He studied philosophy and sociology in Damascus. He was arrested by the Israeli authorities in 1974 and, after several months in prison, deported to Lebanon. He later went to Amman. He was only able to return to his home city following the
born in Yaffa in 1981, is a Palestinian scholar and activist, and a member of the Berlin Muslim Feminist Group. Since 2016 she is Assistant-Professor in Gender and Religion at Maastricht University. Lana completed her Ph.D. studies at the Centre for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies at the Humboldt University of Berlin
was born a Palestinian in Syria in 1935. He has lived in Germany since 1990 and works as a certified psychologist, doctor, translator and author. 2009 saw the publication of his semi-autobiographical novel and the travelogue »Safar beinal A’ualem« (tr: Journey between Worlds), in which he documents his encounter with
Hassan Khader, born in Gaza in 1953, is a Palestinian writer and literary critic and is chief editor of the literary journal »Al-Karmel«, which is published in Ramallah. His most well-known works include »ard alghazallah« (2003, tr: Land of the Deer) and »Hawyat al akhar« (1997, tr: Identity of the
Ghassan Zaqtan was born in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, in 1954. His father Khalil was a poet of the generation of 1948 and worked for the UNRWA, following the expulsion of Palestinians. For that reason Zaqtan spent his childhood and youth in refugee camps before his family moved near Amman.
The poet and filmmaker Ghayath Almadhoun was born in 1979 as the child of a Palestinian father and a Syrian mother in refugee camp in Damascus. He studied Arabic literature at Damascus University. In 2008 he emigrated to Sweden and became a Swedish citizen.The central themes in Almadhoun’s poetry, which
Dalia Taha was born in Berlin in 1986, but grew up in Ramallah (West Bank). She studied architecture at the Birzeit University in Ramallah. She began writing very early with the active support of her parents. For years she was an editor of the magazine »Yaraat« which was dedicated to
Ala Hlehel (Alaa Hulaihil) was born in Jesh, Galilee in 1974. The Palestinian Israeli studied Scriptwriting in Tel Aviv as well as Communications and Fine Arts at the University of Haifa. Subsequently, was a presenter for a radio station in Haifa, was the establishing editor of two newspapers and was
Adania Shibli was born in Palestine in 1974. She has been writing novels, plays, short stories and narrative essays, which were published in various anthologies, art books, and literary and cultural magazines in different language. She has twice been awarded with the Qattan Young Writerʼs Award-Palestine in 2001 for her
