Adania Shibli

author, essayist, and playwright

Adania Shibli is an author, essayist, and playwright and one of the most prominent voices in contemporary Palestinian literature. Her novel Minor Detail (2020) was an international phenomenon. Inspired by the true story of the rape and murder of a Palestinian girl by Israeli soldiers in 1949, the novel was nominated for the American National Book Award and the International Booker Prize and has been translated into more than ten languages. Shibli was to be awarded the LiBeraturpreis at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2023; however, after the massacre at the Supernova music festival near Re'im, the organisers cancelled the award ceremony, citing “insensitive timing”. The decision drew widespread criticism from more than fifteen hundred authors and literary organisations. Shibli continues to walk the line between literature and political testimony in her other works. She has written two other novels and a number of plays, and she is also a university professor. She lives between Berlin and Jerusalem.