Short Author Bio:
Ibtisam Barakat: Palestinian-American author, poet, translator, artist and educator. She grew up in Palestine and came to America for an internship at the Nation magazine. Later she earned two masters degrees, one in journalism and one in Human Development. Her memoir, TASTING THE SKY: A Palestinian Childhood, (FSG, 2007) won more than 20 awards and honors and is currently available in several languages, and on the 11th printing. Al Ta’ Al-Marbouta Tateer (The Letter Ta Escapes), her book in Arabic about one letter of the Arabic alphabet who refuses to do what it is supposed to do in a word, won the Anna Lindh Foundation prize for best Arabic literature for young readers, 2011. She is the founder of Write Your Life seminars. Ibtisam represented Palestine in the World Poetry Conference in Venezuela, 2009; was the poet of Women Speak International Gathering 2010, and was a delegate to the 3rd UN conference on ending Racism in South Africa. She is one of the 15 international authors who contributed to Amnesty International's Young Adult Anthology, FREE?, celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For two years, 2010 and 2011, she was also one of the judges in the national finals of Poetry Out Loud, the poetry recitation contest for all of high schools in the US and the Islands, run by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. About 235 thousand students participated in Poetry Out Loud in 2010. A selection of Ibtisam's poetry has been put to music and has become a permanent addition to the repertoire of the Boston Children's Chorus. In addition to several short pieces that are forthcoming in 2015, at this time she has also two new and forthcoming books: Balcony on the Moon, the sequel memoir for Tasting the Sky, from FSG/Macmiallan, and Hadeyyah Lel Hamzah, an Arabic book she wrote and illustrated for young readers, forthcoming from the United Arab Emirates national library.
Ibtisam Barakat: Palestinian-American author, poet, translator, artist and educator. She grew up in Palestine and came to America for an internship at the Nation magazine. Later she earned two masters degrees, one in journalism and one in Human Development. Her memoir, TASTING THE SKY: A Palestinian Childhood, (FSG, 2007) won more than 20 awards and honors and is currently available in several languages, and on the 11th printing. Al Ta’ Al-Marbouta Tateer (The Letter Ta Escapes), her book in Arabic about one letter of the Arabic alphabet who refuses to do what it is supposed to do in a word, won the Anna Lindh Foundation prize for best Arabic literature for young readers, 2011. She is the founder of Write Your Life seminars. Ibtisam represented Palestine in the World Poetry Conference in Venezuela, 2009; was the poet of Women Speak International Gathering 2010, and was a delegate to the 3rd UN conference on ending Racism in South Africa. She is one of the 15 international authors who contributed to Amnesty International's Young Adult Anthology, FREE?, celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For two years, 2010 and 2011, she was also one of the judges in the national finals of Poetry Out Loud, the poetry recitation contest for all of high schools in the US and the Islands, run by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. About 235 thousand students participated in Poetry Out Loud in 2010. A selection of Ibtisam's poetry has been put to music and has become a permanent addition to the repertoire of the Boston Children's Chorus. In addition to several short pieces that are forthcoming in 2015, at this time she has also two new and forthcoming books: Balcony on the Moon, the sequel memoir for Tasting the Sky, from FSG/Macmiallan, and Hadeyyah Lel Hamzah, an Arabic book she wrote and illustrated for young readers, forthcoming from the United Arab Emirates national library.