Ibtisam Barakat

Who is Ibtisam Barakat?

Ibtisam Barakat is a Palestinian-American writer, poet, and educator. She was born in Beit Hanina, near Jerusalem.

Barakat received her Bachelor's degree from Bir Zeit University, near Ramallah in the West Bank. In 1986, she moved to New York City, where she interned with The Nation magazine. She went on to earn a Masters degree in Journalism and Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Missouri.

Her childhood memoir, Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood, about growing up under Israeli occupation following the 1967 Six-Day War, was published in 2007 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux and won numerous awards and honors, including the International Reading Association's Best Non Fiction for YA, 2008; the Middle East Council Best Literature Book Award, 2007,; and the 2008 Arab American Book Award in the Children/ Young Adult Category.