Susan Abulhawa (, born June 3, 1970) is a Palestinian American writer and human rights activist. She is the author of several books, and the founder of a non-governmental organization, Playgrounds for Palestine. She lives in Pennsylvania. Her first novel, Mornings in Jenin, was translated into 32 languages and sold more than a million copies. Her second novel, The Blue Between Sky And Water, was sold in 19 languages before its release, and was published in English in 2015. Against the Loveless World, her third novel, was released in August 2020, also to critical acclaim. Early life and education Abulhawa's parents, born in At-Tur in Jerusalem, were refugees of the 1967 war. Her father, according to one account, "was expelled at gunpoint; her mother, who was studying in Germany at the time, was unable to return and the couple reunited in Jordan before moving to Kuwait, where Abulhawa was born in 1970." Her parents split shortly after her birth and Abulhawa's childhood was turbulent, moving between Kuwait, the United States, Jordan, and Palestine. She lived in the United States with an uncle until she was 5, then spent several years moving between relatives in Jordan and Kuwait. She lived in Dar el Tifl, a Jerusalem orphanage, from the age of 10 to 13. At 13, Abulhawa came to the US, where she lived with her father briefly before entering the foster care system in the US. She remained a ward of the court until she emancipated herself at the age of 17 and finished high school, college, and graduate school on her own. Prior to writing her first book, Abulhawa had a successful career in biomedical science, where she worked as a researcher for a pharmaceutical company. In addition to three novels, in 2013 Abulhawa published a collection of poetry entitled My Voice Sought the Wind. Abulhawa is the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, an NGO that advocates for Palestinian children by building playgrounds in Palestine and UN refugee camps in Lebanon. The first playground was erected in early 2002. Activism She is involved in the campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions and as a speaker for Al Awda, the Right to Return coalition. Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Abulhawa is signatory to the boycott campaign against Israel, including the cultural boycott. She gave the keynote address at one of the first campus BDS conferences at the University of Pennsylvania.