Atef Abu Saif

Atef Abu Saif was born in Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip in 1973. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Birzeit, a Master’s degree from the University of Bradford and a PhD in Political and Social Science from the European University Institute in Florence. He is the author of five novels: Shadows in the Memory (2007), The Tale of the Harvest Night (1999), Snowball (2000), The Salty Grape of Paradise (2003, 2006) and A Suspended Life (2014), which was shortlisted for the 2015 International Prize for Arab Fiction (IPAF). In 2014 Atef edited The Book of Gaza, as part of Comma Press’s ‘City in Short Fiction’ series, which featured ten short stories by ten contemporary authors from the Strip. Shortly after publication, Operation Protective Edge commenced and Atef documented his and his young family's experience of the Gaza bombardment in a number of pieces for western media including The Guardian, The New York Times and Slate. The diary Atef kept during the conflict has now been published by Comma Press as 'The Drone Eats With Me: Diaries from a City Under Fire'.