Osama Al-Eissa

Osama al-Eissa is a Palestinian writer and journalist, born in Dheisha refugee camp, Bethlehem, in 1963. In 1984, he published his first short story collection We, the Poor, Are Still the Most Capable of Love. He moved to Jordan in 1987 and worked as a journalist for various Arab and Palestinian newspapers, becoming editor-in chief of the weekly Al-Sada paper. He has published several novels, including Al Maskobiya (2010) and The Madmen of Bethlehem (2013); six academic and historical books, including The Scrolls of the Dead Sea (2003); and four short story collections. He has also completed research for documentary films about Palestinian culture and politics. Al-Eissa has won a number of prizes, including a merit award from the Return to Oral History Prize for his research Tales from the Ground in Jerusalem; The Arab Prize for Creativity for his novel Al Maskobiya; and the 2015 Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Literature, for The Madmen of Bethlehem.