Ibtisam Azem
PalestineAbout
Ibtisam Azem is a Palestinian novelist, short-story writer, and journalist born in Taybeh, a Palestinian town near Jaffa. Based in New York, she has worked as a journalist covering Middle Eastern affairs and has contributed to Arabic-language and international media. Her literary work explores displacement, memory, exile, identity, and the complex relationship between Palestinians and their homeland. Her most acclaimed novel, The Book of Disappearance (Sifr al-Ikhtifa, 2014), imagines a world in which all Palestinians living in Israel suddenly vanish overnight. Through alternating perspectives, the novel examines historical memory, collective identity, privilege, and the consequences of erasing an entire people from public consciousness. The work has attracted international attention for its imaginative premise and its exploration of how societies remember—or suppress—their histories. Azem’s writing combines psychological depth with political reflection, using speculative elements and intimate storytelling to examine belonging, loss, and the enduring effects of displacement on Palestinian life.
