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Ibtisam Azem

Ibtisam Azem is a Palestinian novelist and journalist based in New York. She is the author of a short story collection and two novels, The Book of Disappearance (2014; English translation, 2024) and The Sleep Thief (2011; English translation, 2026). The Book of Disappearance has been translated into ten languages and was longlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize. Azem works as a journalist in New York, where she focuses on the United Nations and U.S. foreign policy. She is a Harvard Radcliffe Fellow for the 2026–27 academic year. 

Articles by Ibtisam Azem

Two Short Stories by Ibtisam Azem, trans. by Mayada Ibrahim
In these two short stories by Palestinian writer Ibtisam Azem, things are not quite as they seem. In 'Nashwa', a woman wakes up in the aftermath of a street protest with no recollection of her actions. In 'The Old Woman and the Poppies', Nada learns why the poppies surrounding her home are so significant and what they represent for her people and land. Translated from Arabic by Mayada Ibrahim, this fiction is simultaneously disconcerting and grounding — unfolding in medias res, with scenes and imagery that linger long in the reader's mind.
Bloomsbury Drama
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