Palestinian
Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine.
*: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...
writer. She has written eleven novels, which have been translated into English, French, Hebrew, German, Spanish, and many other languages. One of her best-known works is the novel '' Wild Thorns'' (1976). She has won international prizes, including the 2006
Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature
The Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature () is a literary award for Arabic literature.Birzeit University
Birzeit University () is a public university in the West Bank, Palestine, registered by the Palestinian Ministry of Social Affairs as a charitable organization. It is accredited by the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Mini ...
, Palestine.
Biography
Sahar Khalifeh was born in
Nablus
Nablus ( ; , ) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 156,906. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a ...
, British Mandate Palestine, the fifth of eight daughters. Khalifeh reflects “I learned that I was a member of a miserable, useless, worthless sex. From childhood, I was taught to prepare myself for the risks associated with being a woman.”
In childhood, Khalifeh found creative outlets like reading, writing, and painting. She was married off against her will shortly after finishing high school in
Amman, Jordan
Amman ( , ; , ) is the capital and the largest city of Jordan, and the country's economic, political, and cultural center. With a population of four million as of 2021, Amman is Jordan's primate city and is the List of largest cities in the ...
. She describes her 13-year marriage as “miserable and devastating” and did not write during this period. She once again found refuge in books: “I indulged, just like anybody else in the educated Arab world, in the existentialist movement and existential intellectualism. Until the Occupation took place, I continued to be an existentialist.”
After the
1967
Events January
* January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair.
* January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...
defeat of Jordan and subsequent Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Khalifeh began writing again. She began with “resistance poetry”, inspired by the works of
Mahmoud Darwish
Mahmoud Darwish (; 13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008) was a Palestinians, Palestinian poet and author who was regarded as Palestine's national poet.
In 1988 Darwish wrote the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, which was the formal declarat ...
before breaking from the limited female narratives typical in resistance literature. Her first novel, ''After the Defeat'', followed the interactions of families in a Nablus apartment building after the war. The only manuscript of this novel was confiscated by Israeli authorities and never published. Khalifeh continued writing and ''We Are Not Your Slaves Any Longer'', was published in 1974, followed by her best-known novel, ''Wild Thorns,'' in 1976. ''Wild Thorns'' explored class nuances under
Israeli occupation
Israel has occupied the Golan Heights of Syria and the Palestinian territories since the Six-Day War of 1967. It has previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to 1967, control of the Palestinian terr ...
. She published ''The Sunflower'' in 1980 as a
sequel
A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music, or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...
to ''Wild Thorns'' to focus on female narratives that were largely absent from the original story. In her autobiography, ''A Novel for My Story'', she describes beginning life as a university student at the age of thirty-two alongside two other friends from Nablus.
She continued her education in the U.S., receiving a
Fulbright scholarship
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...
to complete her MA in English from the
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolling students in 1795 ...
. She received her Ph.D. in Women's studies and American literature from the
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...
. She returned to Nablus in 1988 after the start of the
first intifada
The First Intifada (), also known as the First Palestinian Intifada, was a sustained series of Nonviolent resistance, non-violent protests, acts of civil disobedience, Riot, riots, and Terrorism, terrorist attacks carried out by Palestinians ...
and began writing ''Bab al-Saha'' (''Passage to the Plaza''), a novel depicting women's lives against the background of the Intifada. In 1988, Khalifeh also founded the Women's Affairs Center in Nablus. She describes her work with women in Nablus in an interview with Penny Johnson “I didn't bring an image of an institution from abroad. I learned from ‘reality.’” Khalifeh has since opened Women’s Affairs Center branches in Gaza City, West Bank, and Amman, Jordan.
Khalifeh has continued writing, one of her recent publications أصلٌ وفصل (Root and Branch) was published in 2009 by Dar al-Adeb and translated into English as ''Of Noble Origins'' in 2012. This novel, set on the eve of the Nakba of 1948 & the state of Israel’s establishment, explores the stories of characters confronting the British Mandate and the
Zionist movement
Zionism is an ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the Jewish people, pursued through the colonization of Palestine, a region roughly co ...
. Khalifeh’s most recent publication of 2010 ''My First and Only Love'' follows the story of a Palestinian woman who, after many years in exile, returns home to Nablus. This novel was published in English by Hoopoe in March 2021. Khalifeh has published eleven novels, all of which deal with the situation of the Palestinians under occupation.
Selected works
Publications by Khalifeh
The following novels are available in translation into English:
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Other novels not translated into English:
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Publications with contributions by Khalifeh
*''Anthology of Modern Palestinian Literature'' by
Salma Jayyusi
Salma Khadra Jayyusi (; 16 April 1925 – 20 April 2023) was a Palestinian poet, writer, translator and anthologist. She was the founder and director of the Project of Translation from Arabic (PROTA), which aims to provide translation of Arabic ...
(Columbia University Press), contains excerpts of her earlier work