Maya Abu Al-Hayat

Maya Abu Al-Hayat was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1980 but grew up in Jordan. She was raised by her aunt.[1] At some point, she joined her father in Tunis.[2] In 2003, she received a degree in civil engineering from An-Najah National University in Nablus. [3]

Initially, she worked as a civil engineer.[4]

She has written novels, collections of poetry, and children’s books. She became the director of the Palestine Writing Workshop in 2013.[5]

Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Cordite Poetry Review, The Guardian, and Literary Hub.[6] Her writing has been translated into English, French, German, Korean, and Swedish.[7]

She has written a number of children’s stories, including The Blue Pool of Questions.[8]

She is the editor of The Book of Ramallah, a book of short stories published by Comma Press in its Reading the City Series. She has described Ramallah in the following manner: “It’s a city, but also a bubble.”[9]

She moved to Jerusalem in 2008.[10]

She lives there with her husband and children.[11]

• 2005 Young Creative Writer Award, Ministry of Culture[12]
• 2006 Young Writer Award for Poetry, A.M. Qattan Foundation[13]
• 2016 Best Illustration (in The Blue Lake of Questions), Etisalat Award for Arabic Children’s Literature[14]

• The Book of Ramallah, Liverpool Arab Arts Festival, March 3, 2021
• "Reading the City: The Book of Ramallah," March 16, 2021