Ibtisam Azem is a Palestinian novelist and journalist. She was born in Taybeh, near Jaffa, and studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and later at Freiburg university (Germany) where she completed an MA in German and English Literature, and Islamic Studies. Her first novel, Sariq al-Nawm (The Sleep Thief) was published in 2011 and her second novel, Sifr al-Ikhtifaa (The Book of Disappearance) was published in 2014, both by Dar al-Jamal (Beirut, Lebanon). A translation is forthcoming in English. She is a senior correspondent in New York for the Arabic daily al-Araby al-Jadeed. She is also coeditor at Jadaliyya e-zine and editor of the Arabic page.