Ibtisam Barakat

Ibtisam Barakat is an award-winning, Palestinian-American author, poet, translator, artist and educator. She grew up in Palestine and now lives in the US. She publishes in both English and Arabic and her writings have been translated into numerous world languages. Ibtisam’s memoirs in English, Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood (2007), and Balcony on the Moon: Coming of Age in Palestine (2016), received more than thirty awards and honors combined, including the International Reading Association’s Best Book Award, the Arab American Museum Best Book Award, and the Middle East Council’s Best Book Award. Her books in Arabic include, التاء المربوطة تطير The Letter Ta Escapes which won the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Award; هدية للهمزة A Present for the Letter Hamzah, which she wrote and illustrated; الجرة التي صارت مجرة The Jar that Become a Galaxy, which was the title book for the national reading campaign in Palestine, 2019. Her most recent book, الفتاة الليلكية The Lilac Girl, won the prestigious 2020 Sheikh Zayed Book Award for literary creativity. Ibtisam is the founder and leader of Write Your Life seminars and coaching, to help groups and individuals from all walks of life to find and grow the authentic voice within and to encourage writing personal stories that contribute to a more representative book of humanity. You can watch Ibtisam’sTEDx talk about her transformative and cross-cultural love for language here. And you can contact her via her author website at www.ibtisambarakat.com