Susan Abulhawa

Susan Abulhawa (Arabic: سوزان أبو الهوى‎, born June 3, 1970) is a Palestinian American writer and human rights activist. She is the author of several books, and the founder of a non-governmental organization, Playgrounds for Palestine. She lives in Pennsylvania. Her first novel, Mornings in Jenin, was translated into 32 languages and sold over a million copies.Her second novel, The Blue Between Sky And Water, was sold in 19 languages before its release, and was published in English in 2015. Against the Loveless World, her third novel, was released in August 2020, also to critical acclaim.

Abulhawa's parents, born in At-Tur in Jerusalem, were refugees of the 1967 war. Her father, according to one account, "was expelled at gunpoint; her mother, who was studying in Germany at the time, was unable to return and the couple reunited in Jordan before moving to Kuwait, where Abulhawa was born in 1970."

Her parents split shortly after her birth and Abulhawa's childhood was turbulent, moving between Kuwait, the United States, Jordan, and Palestine.She lived in Dar el Tifl, a Jerusalem orphanage, for three years until age 13, when Israel expelled her for not having proper documentation, even though her family's history can be traced to two villages dating back to the first century.

At 13, Abulhawa came to the US, where she lived with her father briefly before entering the foster care system in the US.She remained a ward of the court until she emancipated herself at age 17 and finished high school, college, and graduate school on her own.

Prior to writing her first book, Abulhawa had a successful career in biomedical science, where she worked as a researcher for a pharmaceutical company.

In addition to three acclaimed novels, in 2013 Abulhawa published a collection of poetry entitled My Voice Sought the Wind.

Abulhawa is the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, an NGO that advocates for Palestinian children by building playgrounds in Palestine and UN refugee camps in Lebanon. The first playground was erected in early 2002.

She isinvolved in the campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions and as a speaker for Al Awda, the Right to Return coalition.

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)

Abulhawa is signatory to the boycott campaign against Israel, including the cultural boycott.She gave the keynote address at one of the first campus BDS conferences at the University of Pennsylvania.

Abulhawa sees the BDS movement, according to a 2012 profile, "as one of the most effective ways to promote Palestinian rights and achieve justice against Israel's ongoing ethnic cleansing."

She compares Israel to apartheid South Africa. In 2013, Abulhawa declined an invitation from Al Jazeera to participate in a discussion about the Israel-Palestine issue with several Israelis, including some who were highly critical of Israeli policy.

Mornings in Jenin

Abulhawa's novel Mornings in Jenin, which was published in 2010 by Bloomsbury, has been translated into Arabic by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing. It has also been translated into at least two dozen other languages and has become an international bestseller.

The French author and philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy called Mornings in Jenin "a concentration of anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish clichés masquerading as fiction." Abulhawa responded by dismissing Levy as a "French pop star of philosophy and intellectual elitism" and accusing him of "name-calling": "He simply slaps on the word 'anti-Semitism' to discredit any negative portrayal of Israel.... Mr. Levy accuses us of 'demonizing Israel', when in fact, all we do is pull back the curtain, however slightly, to show a dark truth he wishes to keep hidden. I suspect that Mr Levy feels, as most Jewish supporters of Israel do, that he is more entitled to my grandfather's farms than I am. After all, that is really the foundation of Israel, isn't it?"

Filmworks Dubai bought the film rights to Mornings in Jenin, planning to begin production in late 2013. Anna Soler-Pont, head of the Pontas agency, which sold the film rights to the novel, said: "This is going to be a special project. There aren't any epic films on Palestine yet." However, the producer passed away shortly after and the rights reverted back to her.Another producer recently optioned the rights for a TV series.

In addition to her fiction writing and activism, Abulhawa occasionally worked as a medical writer creating articles for peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals.

As a political analyst and activist, has written numerous op-eds for print and online media, and has given a multitude of lectures and talks around the world.

Novels

• Mornings in Jenin (Bloomsbury, 2010, ISBN 978-1608190461).
• The Blue Between Sky and Water (Bloomsbury, 2015, ISBN 978-1632862228).
• Against the Loveless World (Bloomsbury, 2020, ISBN 978-1526618801).

Other

• Shattered Illusions, anthology (Amal Press, 2002)
• Searching Jenin, anthology (Cune Press, 2003).
• Seeking Palestine: New Palestinian Writing on Exile and Home anthology (2012)
• My Voice Sought The Wind, poetry collection (Just World Books, November 2013)
• This Is Not A Border: Reportage & Reflections from the Palestine Festival of Literature (2017)

• The Leeway Foundation Edna Andrade award for fiction and creative non-fiction.
• Best Books Award for Historic Fiction.
• MEMO Palestine Book Award.
• Barbara Deming Memorial Fund Award.
• Aspen Words Award Finalist
• Arab American Museum Award for Fiction
• MEMO Palestine Book Award
• Long listed for Rathsbones Folio Prize.
• Finalist for the 2020 Athenaeum of Philadelphia Literary Award.