Maya Abu Al-hayat

Maya Abu Al-Hayat is a Beirut-born Palestinian novelist, poet and children’s book writer living in Jerusalem, but working in Ramallah. She has published three collections of poetry, “Home Dresses and Wars” (Dar Alahlyah, 2016), “This Smile, That Heart” (Dar Raya, 2012), “What She Said about Him” (House of Poetry & Qattan Foundation, 2007), and four other novels: “Glitter” ( Dar Almutawaset, 2018), “Nobody knows his blood type” (Dar Al-Adab 2008), “Grains of Sugar” (House of Poetry, 2004), and “Threshold of Heavy Spirit” (Ogarit, 2011), as well as several children’s books including an English-language translation of her award-winning picture book, “The Blue Pool of Questions.” She is the director of the Palestine Writing Workshop, an institution that seeks to encourage reading in Palestinian communities through creative writing projects and storytelling with children and teachers. She contributed to, and wrote a forward for A Bird is Not a Stone: An Anthology of Contemporary Palestinian Poetry, and is the editor of Comma’s forthcoming Book of Ramallah.