Sayed Kashua is a Palestinian Arab who lived in Jerusalem until July 2014. He is the author of three novels: DANCING ARABS (2002), LET IT BE MORNING (2004) and SECOND PERSON SINGULAR (2010), as well as one work of nonfiction: NATIVE: DISPATCHES FROM AN ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN LIFE (2016). Kashua publishes a weekly satirical column in Ha’aretz newspaper and is the creator and script writer of the critically acclaimed satiric television sitcom “Arab Labor,” as well as "The Scriptwriter." The film DANCING ARABS, based on the novel and in part, SECOND PERSON SINGULAR, opened the Jerusalem International Film Festival in July 2014.

Kashua is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the 2004 Grinzane Cavour Award for First Novel 2004 (Italy), the 2005 Prime Minister’s Prize (Israel), the 2006 Lessing Prize for Critic (Germany), the 2010 SFJFF Freedom of Expression Award in 2010 (USA), the 2011 Bernstein Prize (Israel) and the 2012 Prix des Lecteurs du Var (France). He now teaches at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Further Material:

The New Yorker profile on Sayed Kashua