Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Salman Masalha (born November 4, 1953) is a poet, writer, essayist and translator. He is a Palestinian Druze. Masalha is a bilingual writer who writes in Arabic and Hebrew, and publishes in both languages. His poetry has also appeared in other languages. Salman is a frequent contributor to left-leaning Israeli newspaper, Haaretz.
Masalha was born on November 4, 1953 to a Druze family in Maghar, a village in the Galilee in northern Israel. After graduating from high school he moved to Jerusalem, where he has been living since 1972. Masalha studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and holds a Ph.D. degree in Arabic literature. He wrote his thesis on the mythological elements of ancient Arabic poetry. He taught Arabic language and literature at the Hebrew University and served as co-editor of the Concordance of Early Arabic Poetry. One volume of the concordance titled Six Early Arab Poets: New Edition and Concordance was published in 1999.
Masalha is the author of eight volumes of poetry. Some of his Arabic and Hebrew poems have been performed to music and recorded by leading Israeli and Palestinian musicians, among them: Marwan Abado, Kamilya Jubran, Micha Shitrit, Yair Dalal and others.
In 2006, Masalha was awarded the Israel's President's Prize for Literature for his collection of Hebrew poetry In Place.
After first declaring he intended to boycott the 2015 general election, he ultimately endorsed Meretz.
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