Susan Abulhawa was born to refugees of the 1967 war when Israel captured what remained of Palestine, including Jerusalem. She currently lives in Pennsylvania, USA with her daughter, two dogs and a cat. She is the founder and President of Playgrounds for Palestine, a children's organization dedicated to upholding The Right to Play for Palestinian children. Her essays and political commentary have appeared in print and electronic news media internationally and she is a contributing author to two anthologies, Shattered Illusions (Amal Press 2002) and Searching Jenin (Cune Press 2003). Mornings in Jenin is her first novel, which has been translated into several languages.