Atef Abu Saif (Arabic: عاطف أبو سيف; 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.
Atef Abu Saif | |
|---|---|
| عاطف أبو سيف | |
 | |
| Minister for Culture | |
| Assumed office 2019 | |
| President | Mahmoud Abbas |
| Prime Minister | Mohammad Shtayyeh |
| Preceded by | Ehab Bessaiso |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1973 Jabalia refugee camp, Gaza Strip |
| Education | |
| Occupation | Writer
Spokesman |
Early life and education
editAbu 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
editSince 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.[needs update]
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] They were published as a collected volume, titled Don't Look Left, in March 2024. The diary is an eyewitness record of the first 75 days of Israel-Gaza war; 45 days in his house in the north and another 30 days in a tent after his forced move to the south of the Gaza Strip.[10] Reviewer Helena Kennedy wrote "It is hard to describe the cumulative effect this devastating chronicle has over 280 pages. It describes a mounting toll of death and destruction.... Gradually, it makes it clear that there is no safe place in the Gaza Strip."[11]
Public service career
editOn 5 February 2018, Fatah's Information, Culture, and Ideology Commission commissioned him as a spokesman for Fatah.[12] Since 2019, he has been the Minister for Culture in the Palestine Authority.[7]
Life events
editIn 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.[13]
References
edit- ^ "Bio 1". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-10-30.
- ^ Bio 2
- ^ "Atef Abu Saif". International Prize for Arabic Fiction. Retrieved 2023-12-08.
- ^ "The Book of Gaza". English PEN. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
- ^ "Atef Abu Saif". The Short Story Project. 6 October 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
- ^ Gerstenberg, Ralph. "Sirren der Kampfdrohnen während des Gaza-Kriegs". Deutschlandfunk. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
- ^ a b Saab, Sheren Falah (December 7, 2022). "The Real Mystery Behind an Excellent Detective Story Set in Gaza". Haaretz. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
- ^ Abu Saif, Atef (December 2, 2023). "I want to be awake when I die". New York Times. Retrieved 2023-12-03.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Creamer, Ella (January 12, 2024). "Palestinian Authority minister to publish diary of life during Israel-Gaza war". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 January 2024.
- ^ Kennedy, Helena (March 14, 2024). "Don't Look Left by Atef Abu Saif review – in the line of fire". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-05-15.
- ^ "تكليف عاطف ابو سيف متحدثا اعلاميا باسم "فتح"". maan news agency. Retrieved 7 Feb 2018.
- ^ 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
edit- Abu Saif, Atef (2024). Don't Look Left: A Diary of Genocide. Comma Press. ISBN 9780807016848.
- Abu Saif, Atef (2016). The Drone Eats with Me: A Gaza Diary. Beacon Press. ISBN 9780807049105.
- Abu Saif, Atef (2015). Frühstück mit der Drohne: Tagebuch aus Gaza. Unionsverlag. ISBN 9783293309036.
- Abu Saif, Atef (2014). The book of Gaza : a city in short fiction. Comma Press. ISBN 9781905583645. OCLC 870426674.
- Abu Saif, Atef (2006). The impact of the EU aid on the stateness of the Palestinian entity (PhD thesis) (in German). European University Institute. OCLC 1088463214.
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