Michel S. Moushabeck
Michel S. Moushabeck is a writer, editor, translator, publisher, and musician of Palestinian descent. His Instagram reviews of books on Palestine and by Palestinians can be found @ReadPalestine. He is the founder of Interlink Publishing, a 35-year-old, Massachusetts-based independent publishing house specializing in fiction-in-translation, history and current affairs, illustrated children’s books, and award-winning international cookbooks. He is the author of several books including, Kilimanjaro: A Photographic Journey to the Roof of Africa. Most recently, he co-edited the winter issue of the Massachusetts Review focusing on Mediterranean literature and contributed a piece to Being Palestinian: Personal Reflections on Palestinian Identity in the Diaspora (Edinburgh University Press). He is the recipient of NYU’s Founder’s Day Award for outstanding scholarship (1981), the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s Alex Odeh Award (2010) and The Palestinian Heritage Foundation Achievement Award (2011). He serves on the board of directors of Media Education Foundation and on the board of trustees of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), an annual literary prize administered by the UK’s Booker Prize Foundation. He is also a founding member and director of the Boston-based Layaali Arabic Music Ensemble. He has performed at concert halls worldwide and plays percussion on the music soundtrack of an award-winning BBC documentary on Islam, which aired as part of the series The People’s Century. His recording credits include two albums: Lost Songs of Palestine and Folk Songs and Dance Music from Turkey and the Arab World. He lectures frequently on Arabic music and literature-in-translation. He plays music almost daily; is a keen mountain climber; and is a rather obsessive collector jazz and world music, world percussion instruments, books, old maps, and contemporary art. He has three daughters—all book editors—and lives in Leverett, Massachusetts with his longtime German partner who works at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and is a leading expert on East German film.
