Atef Abu Saif
عاطف أبو سيف
Minister for Culture
Assumed office
2019
PresidentMahmoud Abbas
Prime MinisterMohammad Shtayyeh
Preceded byEhab Bessaiso
Personal details
Born1973
Jabalia refugee camp, Gaza Strip
Education
University of Birzeit

University of Bradford European University Institute

Occupation
Writer

Spokesman

Atef Abu Saif (born 1973) is a Palestinian writer.[1][2] His books have been translated into various languages, and his writings have also been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, Guernica, and Slate. He has served as a spokesman for Fatah and served as Minister for Culture in the Palestine Authority since 2019.

Early life and education

Abu Saif was born in Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. He studied at the University of Birzeit and the University of Bradford before going on to obtain a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence.[3]

Writing

Since his literary debut in the late 1990s, Abu Saif has written a number of novels and short story collections. His novel A Suspended Life (2014) was shortlisted for the 2015 Arabic Booker Prize. He published five other novels: Shadows in the memory (1997), Tale of the Harvest Night (1998), The Snow Ball (2000), The Salty Grape of Paradise (2003), and Running in Place (2019). In addition to that he published two collections of short stories: Everything is Normal and Stories from Gaza Time. Abu Saif edited as well a collection of short stories from Gaza titled The Book of Gaza, which includes as well one of his own short stories. It was published by Comma 2014.[4]

A Suspended Life is going to be published in English autumn 2016 by Bloomsbury.

His account of the 2014 Gaza conflict was published in English under the title The Drone Eats with Me: Diaries from a City Under Fire, with a foreword by Noam Chomsky.[5] Extracts from the diaries have appeared in Western publications such as Slate, Guernica, The Guardian and The New York Times. The Diaries appeared in Germany 2015 under the title Frühstück mit der Drohne, from Unionsverlag.[6]

Abu Saif's 2019 novel Running in Place was the first novel from Gaza to be translated into Hebrew and published in Israel.[7]

Abu Saif's diary dispatches written while visiting in Gaza during the 2023 Israel-Hamas war were published in the New York Times and Slate magazine.[8][9]

Public service career

On 5 February 2018, Fatah's Information, Culture, and Ideology Commission commissioned him as a spokesman for Fatah.[10] Since 2019, he has been the Minister for Culture in the Palestine Authority.[7]

Life events

In March 2019, Palestinian Authority news organization Wafa published pictures that showed Saif, bruised and bandaged, clothed in blood-stained garments and lying on a hospital bed. Wafa said that Saif had been beaten as Hamas attacked protestors and journalists; protestors were on the streets to demand better living conditions.[11]

References

  1. ↑ "Bio 1". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-10-30.
  2. ↑ Bio 2
  3. ↑ "Atef Abu Saif". International Prize for Arabic Fiction. Retrieved 2023-12-08.
  4. ↑ "The Book of Gaza". English PEN. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
  5. ↑ "Atef Abu Saif". The Short Story Project. 6 October 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
  6. ↑ Gerstenberg, Ralph. "Sirren der Kampfdrohnen während des Gaza-Kriegs". Deutschlandfunk. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
  7. 1 2 Saab, Sheren Falah. "The Real Mystery Behind an Excellent Detective Story Set in Gaza". Haaretz. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
  8. ↑ Abu Saif, Atef (December 2, 2023). "I want to be awake when I die". New York Times. Retrieved 2023-12-03.
  9. ↑ Abu Saif, Atef (December 2, 2023). "My First Day in Southern Gaza Was Like Nothing I've Ever Seen". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 2023-12-03.
  10. ↑ "تكليف عاطف ابو سيف متحدثا اعلاميا باسم "فتح"". maan news agency. Retrieved 7 Feb 2018.
  11. ↑ Akram, Fares (March 19, 2019). "Rare protests erupt against Hamas' 12-year rule over Gaza". Fox News. Associated Press. Retrieved March 26, 2019.

Assorted works


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